Does It Bother You That You Were Not Alive in 1888?

[Mayerling]

Just noticed this thread. Sorry for the late appearance here.

No I would not have wished to be alive in 1888 rather than presently, in the age that nature and my genealogy put me into. I would not have wished to be in 1488 to see the rise of the Tudors or the exploration of the New World, and the Reformation, nor 1588 to be aware as I grew up of Good Queen Bess and the defeat of the Great Armada, nor 1688 to grow up knowing of the "Glorious Revolution", nor 1788 to be aware of the American and French Revolutions and the rise of Napoleon. It does seem odd that "88" always, if not a year of interest historically by itself, is placed so well close to events that one can find of interest, but they are interesting to people who come afterwards - who are like us, looking back to whither we came from. My social and creature comforts are connected to the scientific and economic and political world of 1954 - 20?? right now, and will always be so. I would not mind being able to visit earlier years if time travel were perfected, but to be brought up in that period is just too awkward a concept for me.

One thing that is a big, big turnoff for me. I'm Jewish. Anti-Semitism still exists, but it is not (in 2015) the same as it was in 1888. And guess what? Due to the nature of this website, 1888 is looked at by us as "the year of the Whitechapel Murders". True. But the following year was the year Hitler was born. My family (except for my mother's mother's father's line, which was from Birmingham, England) was from Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Russia. I might have been residing in those countries in the 1930s. As a result I would probably not have been around by 1950.

So I decline being "Miniver Cheevy" who thought all other ages better than his own. I'll stick, despite all present day problems, to the present day.

Jeff

[Carol]

Hi c.d.
I guess I'm not answering your original question either!
Carol

[Carol]

I've just 'found' this thread and thought about it for about ten minutes. I think as I like history so much I'd miss not studying the Victorian era as Casebook has reawakened my interest in it. As for the future - I really feel we are on a downward slide that will be difficult to get out of. To be quite honest I'd like to go backwards just a little bit to the 1950's and stay there till I die. I'm 68 and am very nostalgic about my childhood in those days! GUT is right - people used to be kinder, politer, more considerate, etc. in my own 'old days'.

Carol

[Pcdunn]

How do I know I wasn't alive centuries ago?
How do I know I will not live centuries hence?
Every book I read takes me elsewhere and else when.

P.S. Fried chocolate bars are a sin against man-made nature.

[DVV]

Hello Lynn,

Confusion about the Hume-Nietzsche-Culloden-Cumberland-referendum post ?
A good fried Mars will set you right.

Cheers

[lynn cates]

Oops!

Hello CD. Thanks.

Oops! That should read DVV, not CD--hence, David.

I regret the confusion.

Cheers.
LC

[Beowulf]

To get meaningful answers, I think you have to more rigourously define what you mean by 'alive', so that people are answering the same question.

HAHAHAHA!!!

So here we have the reason why nobody still knows who Jack the Ripper was!

[c.d.]

Hello CD. English am I? Very well, I'll keep a stiff upper lip in light of your remark. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

You lost me on this one, Lynn.

c.d.

[Ginger]

So let me try again. Here is the point I am trying to make. Does it bother you that there are years from the beginning of time when you were not alive? Not that you missed something just that you were not alive at that point. If you say no, then why should it bother you that at some point in the future you will not be alive? Is not being alive in 2088 somehow worse than not being alive in 1888. You are simply not alive at either time.

To get meaningful answers, I think you have to more rigourously define what you mean by 'alive', so that people are answering the same question.

[DVV]

I think I very much screwed up on this and didn't make myself clear at all. I probably shouldn't have used 1888.

So let me try again. Here is the point I am trying to make. Does it bother you that there are years from the beginning of time when you were not alive? Not that you missed something just that you were not alive at that point. If you say no, then why should it bother you that at some point in the future you will not be alive? Is not being alive in 2088 somehow worse than not being alive in 1888. You are simply not alive at either time.

Again, this is a philosophical question and nothing to do with conditions in a given year or what may happen in the future.

Hope this helps clarify things but I have a feeling I am still not making myself clear.

c.d.

Hi CD, here the way I (mis)understand the problem : do I think that "after death = before birth" ?
No.

[lynn cates]

Och!

Hello CD. English am I? Very well, I'll keep a stiff upper lip in light of your remark. (heh-heh)

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

philosophy

Hello CD. Pursuant to your request elsewhere, I have looked over this thread. Yes, #4 helps--but "bother" is hardly a philosophical term.

I think Julie--post #9--nailed it: at least, from a quasi-Thomistic point of view.

Cheers.
LC

[GUT]

Some rude people on these boards have implied that I like to stir .

So on the philosophical side,

If you believe in life after death, the Christian sort, Reincarnation or some other formulation, not being alive in 2088 cannot bother you [as you will be]. Now with many of those belief systems you ere also alve in 1888 so again it shouldn't bother you.

[Beowulf]

My grandfather was born 1900, very close to that time. He was from Scotland, tall and thin and looked quite a bit like all those guys over there at that time. He was very old fashioned and quite intelligent. My grandmother close to that time, and from Ireland very much old fashioned and kept her place. They had a lot to do with my childhood.

Being an American I thought everybody ate eggs in the shell out of an egg cup, said aeroplane, whirlybird, cont-n-entl for continental and many other things for a long time. When the truth finally unfolded, and still is actually, I was surprised to find out how immersed in some of that older other culture I was. How comfortable it is to me. I think it's possible I would have felt somewhat cozy in 1888.

So in thinking of this, yes, I think in a way, it does.

[c.d.]

Folks please read post number 4 in this thread. What is being posted now is not what I intended. It is a philosophical question and has nothing to do with what a particular time period might have to offer.

c.d.