Back to the roots: Have people been happier and healthier before
We know nothing about the future.but somehow we imagine the past: we remember recent events and can find scientific information about very remote antiquity. The “return to the roots” can be heard in a variety of contexts: some consider that for health we need to eat like in the Paleolithic, and to do sports to barefoot; others are nostalgic for the "happy Soviet childhood" - when children "spent time on the street", not crowding into gadgets and not immediately responding to my mother's call for dinner. We understand whether previous generations were happier and more dangerous than appeals to go back.
Happiness and progress
Yuval Noi Harari, author of the book "Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity," in The Guardian says that there are two polar points of view regarding who is happier — ancient people or modern people. Proponents of the first claim that since technical, economic, and medical progress made people stronger and presented them with many opportunities, this is why they should be absolutely happy.
The romantic view of history suggests that the opposite is true and technical progress at the root has ruined the individuality and emotionality of a person, making all of us just cogs in a giant machine. Social disintegration, spiritual vacuum and computer and media zombies are just a few of the arguments cited by romantics. At the same time, Harari notes that no point of view, brought to the extreme, can be true, because the very concept of happiness cannot be uniquely associated either with the material abundance of modernity or with the relative regularity of life in the old days.
The very concept of happiness cannot be clearly associated either with the material abundance of modernity or with the relative regularity of life in the old days.
For example, the European Commission launched the Beyond GDP project - the bottom line is that GDP alone as an indicator of progress is not enough and public, environmental and other indicators need to be fixed to understand how well or poorly people live. In Great Britain, the Minister of Loneliness has appeared, and there are ministers of happiness in the United Arab Emirates and India (the latter, however, is now wanted on suspicion of murder).
The feeling of happiness largely depends on our expectations: who was not disappointed, having dined at a restaurant praised by friends or having gone to a resort, from the photo of which it was not clear on the Internet that there would be so many tourists there? Moreover, when going to a restaurant was a rare opportunity, the fact itself created a feeling of celebration, regardless of food and atmosphere. Travels in the pre-Internet era seemed to be a fairy tale at all: it was impossible to imagine in advance what types, sounds and smells await you where a plane or a train carries you. Does this mean it would be great to go back? It is unlikely, because it would mean first of all to narrow down their own opportunities.
Internet and plastic
Even those who would like to return to a happy childhood or to the past with its quieter rhythm will not be able to do this - the time machine does not exist yet. Yes, and nostalgia for the past often turns out to be mixed not on facts, but on emotions; You can miss the cozy evenings with children's books from the library - and opening a book reprinted with the same drawings, you will be terrified by the pioneering propaganda or the explicit sexism of the text. If the best that we can take from our own past is the ability to rejoice in trifles and a smaller amount of information, then it is worthwhile to take up issues of reasonable consumption and digital hygiene.
If purchases do not bring joy, it may be worthwhile to engage in shopping less often and think better about tasks; one carefully selected thing, which is coolly fitted into the wardrobe, will bring more pleasant emotions than the spontaneous purchase of five things, which, it turns out, has nothing to wear. Children can be taught to rational consumption: the ability to choose from a variety of toys you need and the ability to give the rest to those in need is an excellent quality that will definitely come in handy in life.
It is good that in an era of tremendous choice, a reduction in consumption can come precisely from a conscious decision, and not from poverty and scarcity on the shelves.
Again, do not rush to extremes, reducing shoe wardrobe to one pair of boots for the season. Our parents forced us to take care of the clothes, because it was not easy to buy a replacement, we had to sew up the torn with our hands, and even wash the soiled clothes quickly and efficiently at times. It makes no sense to overwhelm children with endless new things or buy a lot for growth (the stores are nowhere to go), but there are so many clean T-shirts and pants to last for a week of playing with sand and climbing trees, an adequate amount of purchases. In any case, it is good that in an era of tremendous choice, a reduction in consumption may come precisely from a conscious decision, and not from poverty and scarcity on the shelves.
Something to borrow from the past is worth taking care of the future: for example, try to minimize the use of plastic and disposable packaging. In the past, bags of celebrity photos in contrast to shopping bags seemed a sign of wealth; Now reusable shopping bag - a symbol of concern for the environment and responsible attitude to the world. It may seem that the production of a smaller amount of garbage or an eco-friendly approach to cosmetics within one person or a small family will not change anything for the planet, but together we are strong, and caring for the environment affects our own feelings definitely positively.
Even if you are tired of the endless stream of news, it is strange to completely abandon the Internet. Just think about your own relationships with the Internet, social networks and gadgets: for example, researchers associate a large number of accounts in social networks with depression (although it is not yet clear what is the cause and what is the consequence). The avalanche of information and constant notifications, on the one hand, are unnerving and annoying, increasing the constant level of stress, and on the other hand, make us dependent on smartphones and computers. It makes sense to remove all unnecessary things from your phone and work out simple rules: for example, do not take gadgets into the bedroom and turn them off for a family dinner - so that you can safely talk around the table, “like in the good old days”.
Health and longevity
The characters described in the old books, including religious ones, have lived for hundreds of years - and scientists continue to argue about the very concept of the year in such literature; perhaps, the authors called the "year" a month or another cycle of time, or for some reason put the real figures in a square. In today's applications for record longevity, outgoing, for example, from Nepal or the countries of the Caucasus, there are indicators like 141 or 170 years old - but there are no documents to confirm the reality of this age. Now people who are considered to be long-lived are at least ninety years old - and in general it can be argued that life expectancy continues to increase throughout the world. In many countries, it is on average more than 80 years old - there were no such indicators either in the Paleolithic era or two hundred years ago.
Of course, technical progress, urbanization, and the development of medicine have contributed to a longer and healthier life - vaccines and antibiotics made early death from infections a relative rarity. And although we talk a lot about the fact that unhealthy food and lack of exercise lead to a variety of diseases and increase the risk of death from them, even office work and an abundance of ready-made food in supermarkets did not prevent the average life expectancy to grow two or even three times. Against this background, calls for a return to the past in the form of home delivery or refusal of vaccination seem at least inadequate. Moreover, such a refusal of modern achievements is usually very selective: few people are ready to become a recluse and at the same time abandon transport, the Internet or the aqueduct.
In many countries, life expectancy is on average more than eighty years - there were no such indicators either in the Paleolithic era or two hundred years ago.
In reality, for example, members of the Amish religious movement, who live mostly in the United States and Canada, have gone so far. They do not use the Internet, televisions and radio, move on foot or on horse-drawn carts - although some communities are already switching to ready-made (and not just homespun) clothes and even cars. With regard to health, on the one hand, closely related marriages lead to the fact that genetic diseases are highly prevalent among the Amish. On the other hand, they have fewer “lifestyle” diseases: the Amish almost do not smoke or drink alcohol, move a lot, are protected from the sun, and as a result, the percentage of various cancers they have is lower than in the general population. Among them are much less common obesity and diabetes - although this can not be said about the diseases of the cardiovascular system.
Many Amish people do not vaccinate their children - and this leads to natural sad consequences: their children are more than twice as likely to be in hospitals because of infections that could have been prevented by vaccination. It is believed that almost the entire Lykov family, hermits who have spent more than forty years in complete isolation from the outside world, died from pneumonia; their immunity was unadapted to viruses and bacteria brought by doctors, scientists and journalists when the family was found.
Followers of paleodiets and "natural" sports advise to take the example of hermits or ancient people: Christopher McDougal, the author of the book "Born to Run", claims that running is the most organic load for a person; He tells how the Taraumara tribe in Mexico is able to drive the antelope by running for several hundred kilometers and forcing it to fall exhausted. And yet it makes more sense to be guided by common sense: no one bothers to increase physical activity or reduce the share of fast food, if desired. But not necessarily chasing antelopes.
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