Comparing 2018 and 1918...Are we happier?

[Tis_Bearself]

I’ve already lived longer - way longer - than I was supposed to have lived back then if I’d been born in 1873.

Eh, if an accident didn’t get you, old age back then was kind of genetic.
All of my grands were born in the 1880s. Three of them lived well into their 80s and my grandmas had 5 and 6 children respectively.
I know my maternal great-grands also lived into their late 70s or 80s.
My maternal grandma even survived smallpox, which she caught when pregnant with my mother, who never had to get a smallpox vaccine because she was exposed in the womb. I used to think this story was far-fetched until I looked it up and found there had actually been a local smallpox epidemic in my mom’s hometown in the 1920s.

 

[Maximilian75]

Good literature, though

 

[Alex337]

TheAmazingGrace:

Speaking as both a woman and someone who likes movies with sound, there’s no way I would trade 2018 for 1918.

Excellent points.

We’re still not able to vote yet.

And as for movies, I’m a fan of color and realistic makeup as well.

Under the assumption that I were in Australia in 1918 I would have the vote already, so that’s nice (Women's suffrage in Australia - Wikipedia)

But beyond that we’re looking at a lot of racism, the whole White Australia policy was up and running. We’d avoid the great flu epidemic but disease would still be a massive problem. Schooling for girls was underwhelming at best, my great-grandmothers hardly had any, largely finishing around 12 - 13 (and a couple of them were in Indigenous workhouses, so that’s even worse).

Given how sickly my mother was during her pregnancies it’s likely I’d have been miscarried rather than born, and if I’d managed to be born I may have died then. My mother most certainly would have. And of course my birth itself would have been scandal given my “mixed” heritage; we can’t have a man with Indigenous blood marrying a nice white girl in 1918 after all. Indigenous people still weren’t legally seen as human after all.

 

[TheAmazingGrace]

There was plenty of moral bankruptcy to go around back then.

 

[Alex337]

I’m pondering this and I’m not sure. I mean it’s hard to compare the moral bankruptcy but I know in Aus we literally, legally saw a large amount of people as not human. Across the world atrocities of this sort were happening. That seems far worse.

 

[ConfusedLucy]

We are most likely more moral in some ways and less in others.

 

[Alex337]

Possibly? But I think people have gotten a bit better from back then. I mean back then we sterilised disabled people and black people, often without telling them (Compulsory sterilization - Wikipedia). We did medical experiments on them too (though horribly this was even later than 1918; Tuskegee Syphilis Study - Wikipedia). I’m not sure we can compare this level of inhumanity.

 

[Edward_H]

As God taught…if you want to be happy, be holy…if you want to be happier be holier…if you want to be extremely happy…be extremely holy.

 

[Maximilian75]

For white straight men (to use as a control group, since their social status has remained essentially unchanged since the 1900s) I think their happiness has declined. We no longer have anything to stand for in our society, and moral relativism has destroyed the religion that forms strong men.

I pick out white straight men here since nearly every other group has seen an increase in living quality and overall societal justice since the 1900s.

 

[Alex337]

For white straight men (to use as a control group, since their social status has remained essentially unchanged since the 1900s) I think their happiness has declined. We no longer have anything to stand for in our society, and moral relativism has destroyed the religion that forms strong men.

I pick out white straight men here since nearly every other group has seen an increase in living quality and overall societal justice since the 1900s.

I’m interested; how has other people gaining the same rights lessened their rights?

 

[Alex337]

Well, we (royal “we”) kill innocent children in the name of convenience (abortion). We allow people to profane God’s institution of marriage. We are destroying the Earth, which is God’s creation, faster now than ever before.

There were definitely some atrocious things in the past, and there definitely are now as well.

People had abortions back then, they were just far more dangerous. And again there was the mass sterilisation of people without their consent, which manages to seem somehow worse to me? I mean that’s forcing people to not have children rather than them choosing it. Back then marital rape was entirely legal, a marriage between a white person and a person of colour could be forcefully annulled and their children taken, that seems rather profane to me. And in terms of pollution; we were polluting tones back then; coal, whaling (History of whaling - Wikipedia), it was terrible. Now at least we’re trying to move towards green solutions.

 

[Maximilian75]

I didn’t mean that at all.

I meant that, since SWM have had no major changes in their quality of life in the last 100 years, they’re an easy group to look at in this context. They’re an easy control group.

I didn’t mean to say that the gainng of rights by some lessens the rights of others.

 

[Alex337]

Ah, my mistake, I’m sorry.

Why are they less happy? Is it related to other people gaining rights?

And if it helps white, straight men have benefited from greater safety regulations at work. My father worked on the docks and his father worked the railroads; the safety standards have gotten far better I’m happy to say. As did rules in terms of holiday time. Some places have even managed to get paternity time approved.

 

[Maximilian75]

I don’t think sit comes from others gaining rights.

And sure, overall health has improved (as witnessed upthread), but culture today tells men (and people in general) that they can find happiness in lust, excess, and false freedom as opposed to the fulfilment and true happiness that life with Christ gives.

 

[Alex337]

Ah, I get that.

I personally feel that we have made improvements to all peoples lives but we have also stepped backwards in other ways. I think that overall we are better off; people are able to live longer and happier lives, more people have the chance to find a moral life with fewer evils being inflicted on them.

In terms of SWM I know I spoke with you about how rights for others can increase their happiness but I’d also like to say that I am a huge proponent for paternity leave. This is something the modern world is starting to give us; the chance for fathers to get to be more involved with their family. I’d like to see far more of this.

 

[alice24]

And sure, overall health has improved (as witnessed upthread), but culture today tells men (and people in general) that they can find happiness in lust, excess, and false freedom as opposed to the fulfilment and true happiness that life with Christ gives.

…which was not different back then. I had once prepared a work project at university about sex traffic, pornography and sexual ethics in medicine around 1900, mainly in the german speaking countries. Same problems, temptations, crimes and worldly issues.
One of the first things you realize as a historian is that people always thought “back then” was life easier.
1918 in germany would have meant fabric work to death, bad education for women, influenza, rising faschism. I´m currently laying down again with a tonsille infection that would have caused my death in 1918, so no, I wonßt go back. I´m blessed with a husband who wasn´t raised with views like white supremacy or women having no sexual interests when they are modest.
Yes, I do think we are on a “bad track” as society right now, bur we won´t find the answer in the last hndred years.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I personally would like to go back to Siena, Italy, and be born in 1347 and hang out with Catherine. She had a lot of disciples, so to speak. Groupies.

One of these days you need to start a thread and discuss why you are such a fan of this lady. I’ve never run across anyone as bonkers over St. Catherine as yourself. Especially a guy.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Like I said, there were definitely atrocious events and practices back then. I don’t deny that. But we have our fair share of them today.

Welcome to colonialism, 1904. Not exactly humanity’s shining hour.

All kinds of racism and oppression and just plain hate going on.

Not even any UN or international human rights watchdog in place.

Colonial Belgian Congo: A Slave Father Gazing at His Daughter's Severed Hand and Foot, 1904 - Rare Historical Photos

In the 23 years (1885-1908) Leopold II ruled the Congo he massacred 10 million Africans by cutting off their hands and genitals and flogging them to death.

rarehistoricalphotos.com

 

[Paul71]

1918 might not be the best year to use as a comparison. 1918 saw the end of World War I, one of the bloodiest wars in history. It also saw the start of the Spanish Flu epidemic, which (if the Wikipedia article is accurate) killed 3% to 5% of the world’s population. Not exactly a great year.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

1918 and 2018 can’t be compared.

1918, WWI and the Great Flu Pandemic.

Only 11 years later, the great depression.

It was a hard life.

Racism and sexism were the norm in 1918. So, for white males, it was better than for them than everyone else.

2018, life is easier, but people are desperate for finding their purpose in life. They’ll attach to anything but God and religion in search of meaning. They’re mostly led down dark paths of unhappiness.

We have to focus on our own time, rather than try to compare it to times past which were so much different.

Jim