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The past was not that cute

(juliawise.net)
430 points mhb | 5 comments | 06 Dec 25 21:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.32s | source
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venturecruelty ◴[07 Dec 25 00:04 UTC] No.46177867[source]▶
No, the past was not "cute", but it also wasn't entirely a Dickensian disaster, either. There are parts about the past we can miss: shared public spaces, authenticity, quality goods and services, ritual, deeper connectedness to each other. Why does it have to be this dichotomy? Why can't we have both now? In fact, we ought to have both. It's not like it's impossible. We just have to user the power we have to build that world. It won't be easy, but it isn't a choice between "Little House on the Prairie" and "Bladerunner".
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1. monero-xmr ◴[07 Dec 25 03:30 UTC] No.46178910[source]▶
It’s extremely hard to truly understand the past, how they thought, what they believed, what they saw as acceptable vs. what today seems crazy. For example the founding legend of Rome is called the Rape of the Sabines, which is how the brave men who founded Rome kidnapped all the women from another tribe so they could have wives and reproduce https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_of_the_Sabine_women

Imagine if the USA’s founding legend wasn’t the honorable Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, and all that jazz, but instead how our ancestors kidnapped and raped the women of the neighboring tribe. The psychology of such a people to remember and retell this story is pretty incredible

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2. binary132 ◴[07 Dec 25 03:47 UTC] No.46178982[source]▶
what’s truly hard for the modern mind to comprehend is that our societies are the exception to the rule of history, not the norm. as the ancients go, that type of thing (along with total scorched-earth genocide of other tribes) was basically commonplace.
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3. nradov ◴[07 Dec 25 04:50 UTC] No.46179243[source]▶
The funny thing is that the Rape of the Sabines was adapted into a popular musical comedy movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" in 1954. Audiences loved it at the time but the story seems bizarre and offensive today.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047472/

4. I-M-S ◴[07 Dec 25 12:12 UTC] No.46181180[source]▶
Would this exceptional modern society of ours you speak of just happen to be the one founded on the genocide of Native American tribes?
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5. binary132 ◴[07 Dec 25 15:26 UTC] No.46182366{3}[source]▶
that’s not who we are any more

200 years ago might as well be 20,000 to the modern mind