darkside question: If you could live in a barbaric era?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-19 06:59am

would you?

say that civilization isn't nearly up to stuff, it's the classical period, or the dark ages, and your alive. and since slavery and waring states is rampant your best chance of survival is at someone else's expense.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2006-11-19 11:31am

Give me five minutes to grab a couple books I have and I could become the Emperor. Still, no. Typhoid, plague, illiteracy, war, barbaracy, religious extremism, filth, poverty, cold, and lack of any sort of diverse diets doesn't exactly appeal to me.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2006-11-19 01:01pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:would you?

Fuck no!

The life of a woman in those times was nasty, brutish, and short. If she was lucky she was the property of powerful man. Wife beating was not only accepted, a man was weird if he didn't. Frequently, she was forbidden to own any real form of property or wealth. If she was intelligent, anything other than submissive, or in any way deviant from the accepted norm she risked be brutalized and killed.

I'll take the early 21st Century in North America despite its flaws, thank you very much.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2006-11-19 02:17pm

No, it would be fucking lame.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2006-11-19 02:33pm

I'm dead within 48 hours without medication, so, no.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2006-11-19 03:05pm

This is like asking people if they want to eat their meals from a public toilette bowl.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-19 03:33pm

faith in internet humanity returned... fucking neighborhood fundies, and spousal abusing fuckwits around here. (sorry real bad epiphiny last night, involving one of my co-worker's ex-husband)

salm · Post by **salm** » 2006-11-19 03:37pm

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2006-11-19 04:04pm

Oh, I get it.

The problem with the era is that a lot of it is effectively "might makes right." What you'd find is that a lot of the arseholes that you have to deal with would probably only be more powerful.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-19 04:07pm

pretty much, running a test to see who here was morally civilized, since I currently am surrounded by either idiots, or might makes right, jingoistic fundmentalists.... (these people play 40k because they think that the IOM is all good and pure)

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2006-11-19 04:41pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:pretty much, running a test to see who here was morally civilized, since I currently am surrounded by either idiots, or might makes right, jingoistic fundmentalists.... (these people play 40k because they think that the IOM is all good and pure)

Does Ragnar Redbeard grace their bookshelves?

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-19 05:23pm

I don't know but they saw my new beard I'm sporting and the pure white streak down the center and made comments about "Witch", "Zeus", and "Odin"

Spyder · Post by **Spyder** » 2006-11-19 05:26pm

Not sure about Witch, but the Zeus and Odin thing I would totally run with.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2006-11-19 05:31pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:I don't know but they saw my new beard I'm sporting and the pure white streak down the center and made comments about "Witch", "Zeus", and "Odin"

Now, if they have Prussian Blue CDs, run.

Run, Bear, run!

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-11-20 02:09am

It took me a while to remember who prussian blue were. Then again not too long ago in this very county a murdered white supremist drugdealer was murdered and his alleged killer was found not guilty.

Junghalli · Post by **Junghalli** » 2006-11-20 02:20am

Let's see. A life of backbreaking drudgery in some feudal despotism, no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no clean water, the doctors probably will do me more harm than good if I get sick, constantly living in fear of famine or attack... yeah, that sounds just absolutely wonderful. Not.

If I could become a king or emperor or something I might consider it... nah, even then I'll probably have a reduced lifespan. Forget it, Dark Ages are called that for a reason.

Junghalli · Post by **Junghalli** » 2006-11-20 02:24am

The Yosemite Bear wrote:pretty much, running a test to see who here was morally civilized, since I currently am surrounded by either idiots, or might makes right, jingoistic fundmentalists.... (these people play 40k because they think that the IOM is all good and pure)

OK, 40K would be slightly more attractive to me than a Midaeval-type Dark Age simply because they are an advanced civilization so the standard of living, while probably still sucky, will likely be higher. At least I'll probably have a flush toilet and won't run the risk of amputation or painful death if I ever get another staph infection.

I'd still much rather stay where I am though.

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-11-20 03:38am

Junghalli wrote:
The Yosemite Bear wrote:pretty much, running a test to see who here was morally civilized, since I currently am surrounded by either idiots, or might makes right, jingoistic fundmentalists.... (these people play 40k because they think that the IOM is all good and pure)
OK, 40K would be slightly more attractive to me than a Midaeval-type Dark Age simply because they are an advanced civilization so the standard of living, while probably still sucky, will likely be higher. At least I'll probably have a flush toilet and won't run the risk of amputation or painful death if I ever get another staph infection.

And most planets have a higher standard of living than our own (Hell even hive worlds do as long as you're not a low class worker), never mind the life extension tech'.

And no thank you, Jews in the middle ages were lucky to be burned alive after seeing their families butchered, raped and killed in front of them. (Yay christianity).
Living in the ME at the time might be interesting (I've always dreamed of meeting Saladin and seeing the battle of the Horns of Hatim) and I could forge a new Muslim empire (Which was very tolerant of secular groups and the jews, it was pagans they converted or slaughtered).

I'd still prefer my very comfortable 21st century lifestyle though

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2006-11-20 06:22am

Not a chance. I like having wikipedia, google, and thousands of years of learning ready at any university.

Post by **K. A. Pital** » 2006-11-20 01:38pm

No, I wouldn't. Even if I could last enough to get my knowledge to work as a source of power.

"Hard to be a God" sealed it best, being a person hundreds of years of progress after the era, both social and scientific progress, it would be cruelly hard to accomplish anything there, let alone merely exist in an age hundreds of years before your own.

Frankly, I could easily die there for the simple lack of medicines.

Even if I become powerful and rule a state molding it like I see it fit, it doesn't really make it much easier.

Although I must say that it's a worthy mission. A single future-traveller like me could boost progress that humanity made in a many hundred years in a few dozen years. Perhaps.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2006-11-20 01:52pm

The lack of toilet paper alone is an inconvenience not worth the hassle, to say nothing of disease, not knowing the languages, and being likely to get beheaded as employed by a lord for advanced scientific knowledge. So no.

Post by **Coyote** » 2006-11-20 03:50pm

Not just no but hell no. The Medieval Ages would be cool to visit but not go live there. If I was forced to go and had time to prepare (ie, pack the guns and max out the credit cards on ammo and REI supplies, etc) than I would find a way to make a life for myself there. But by choice? Hah!

Post by **Edi** » 2006-11-20 04:11pm

No. Just no fucking way. If I was forced to, I suppose I could perhaps cope, depending on time and place, but more likely than not I'd die of something that is easily cured in our society.

Edi

PeZook · Post by **PeZook** » 2006-11-20 04:31pm

I think some of you are seriously demonizing medieval society, not to mention generalizing the hell out of it. It's not like you could get killed by someone just for walking the street (well, ok, maybe right at the beginning of the era you could

)

I'm interested where Broomstick got this bit about it being strange not to beat your wife. I've never stumbled onto anything similar, but then again, I'm not saying it's untrue. Women had it very hard even without this added bit.

What period are we talking about, anyway? The IXth century would be majorly different than the XVth, socially, economically and technologically. Similarily important would be the place you get to live in. DEATH mentioned attitutes towards Jews - it wasn't nearly as bad, since Jews performed a major, important role in Medieval society ever since the Church forbid lending money - There was tension, but it's just untrue that Jews were regularly murdered and raped and whatnot. Location would be crucial here: the Eastern Roman Empire, for example, was pretty tolerant of religious minorities, as was Poland (only in the later periods, though).

Okay, to answer the OP, all things considered? Uh, no. No I wouldn't want to live in the Middle Ages. Or the Classical period. While society wasn't nearly as bad as some here depict it, technology was. No medicine, no indoor plumbing, primitive transportation, manual labor as a main source of income. Most of us are pretty pampered due to XXIst century luxuries, and thus would fall prey easily to disease, cold, or just plain old back-breaking labor necessary for survival, if you're not a craftsman or warrior. If you're a warrior, tough, it would be skull-breaking labor. And most likely it would be practiced on your skull

If I had to choose, I'd probably take XVth century Poland or later, or the Eastern Roman Empire in pretty much any time. The ERE would be preferable, though. Warmer climate, more enlightened attitudes towards things like personal hygene or funny accents. My Greek would be a problem, though. Or lack of any skill at it, to be precise.

I don't have much technological knowledge, but I could build a simple steam engine, I suppose, with some time. If I learned the language well enough I could perhaps dabble a little into mathematics, or maybe develop germ theory long before Pasteur could

I'd much rather stay here and now, though, thankyouverymuch.

Count Dooku · Post by **Count Dooku** » 2006-11-20 06:41pm

If I had the choice? No. But if I had to pick somewhere and some time to live, it would probably be during the Roman Republic's hieght, or if I were a little more ambitious, I'd go with Sparta, during it's golden age. I also wouldn't mind being an Athenian - there's just something so appealing about living somewhere, like Athens during it's own golden age, where real democracy is considered to be one of the crowning acheivements of humanity, and what you say and do actually makes a difference in your community. I'd still much rather live now, though...

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

darkside question: If you could live in a barbaric era?

darkside question: If you could live in a barbaric era?

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