Would you prefer to have been born in a different era?

Lt Dan · 25-03-2017 8:06pm

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Would have loved to have been alive in the 1930s and 40s in America.

Men in suits and hats, smoking unfiltered cigs and drinking neat scotch during the day.

Women acting feminine and dressing beautifully, they looked liked broads, not guys. The family unit being held up as the master key to the success of a society.

The height of our Western Empire.

It fell into decline later than that in fairness, the 50s and 60s were also pretty stable in general.

World War II and possible draft? :eek:

Yes, the fashion was awesome. Men were men back then and women knew their place

:P

Lt Dan · 25-03-2017 8:16pm

Arcade_Tryer wrote: »

People were egocentric long before facebook arrived. Some still are. Some still are not.

The huge resurgence in Gaelscoils, combined with the recent year long commemorations of 1916 and general nationalist sentiment creeping through the country. Can't read a comments section or most newspapers nowadays without claims such as, "It's part of our heritage" and "It's what makes you Irish". While Ireland is not on the same scale as the US or Britain in terms of political shocks, it is still going through its own national identity crisis, just in a more subtle manner.

What is wrong with "the huge resurgence in Gaelscoils"? They still have to educate people in the basics . What is wrong with promoting the national language?

"general nationalist sentiment creeping through the country."

So in other words, to you, Nationalism is a dirty word?

Last I checked, those running these activities have actively sought to embrace all new comers. There was not an ounce of controversy about LGBTI groups joining the St Patrick's Day parades in Ireland, unlike in the US. Many "new Irish" have been invited and accepted when taking part in the parades around the country. The country as a whole has been very vocal in anti racism .

As you said, by comparison to other nations, Ireland would be barely "Nationalistic" in that sense

What was your problem with 1916 commemorations? 100 years anniversary. It was hardly going to be ignored. It was done with respect, taste and did not insult anyone. A nation is entitled to remember it's past and the people who served the country in order to gain Independence. There was no triumphalist in the tone of the celebrations.

"it is still going through its own national identity crisis"
How? It's identity has accepted change and been open to newer cultures and people. Keep your own insecurities to yourself , chief!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 25-03-2017 8:23pm

I often thought I would have liked to have been around in the mid 18th century and met the Lunar Society with Erasmus Darwin, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, James Watt & Co. But I'd probably have been in the wrong social class to have been allowed join in this exciting time in the history of science.

Lt Dan · 25-03-2017 8:24pm

tomwaterford wrote: »

Why would someone want to live before the internet was around?

The world is what you make of it,chances are if your miserable unhappy person now....you'll still be a miserable unhappy person if a time machine landed you back to the times you want to

I doubt the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland before 1890's were that miserable bar the odd Land League riot.Lovely country side, shooting at papist paupers, Britain ruling the world, no Unions telling you how you ought to treat your servants, .............Bliss

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 25-03-2017 8:27pm

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Would have loved to have been alive in the 1930s and 40s in America.

Men in suits and hats, smoking unfiltered cigs and drinking neat scotch during the day.

Women acting feminine and dressing beautifully, they looked liked broads, not guys. The family unit being held up as the master key to the success of a society.

The height of our Western Empire.

It fell into decline later than that in fairness, the 50s and 60s were also pretty stable in general.

You certainly have a Hollywood view of the era. I was around in the 1940s. Glamorous it was not - neither in the US nor here. In addition, there was a little thing called the Great Depression in the 30s followed in to the 40s by a small affair called the Second World War.

25-03-2017 8:30pm

Gunnar Melted Manger wrote: »

You certainly have a Hollywood view of the era. I was around in the 1940s. Glamorous it was not - neither in the US nor here. In addition, there was a little thing called the Great Depression in the 30s followed in to the 40s by a small affair called the Second World War.

Yes, but the real question is were women ever referred to as 'broads' outside of old Rat Pack movies?

I'm guessing no!

Sam Kade · 25-03-2017 8:31pm

Laois_Man wrote: »

I think kids born from maybe the 2030's onwards are going to have a terrible life

We've made absolute ****e of the Earth for them

That's if we don't all get nuked first

Goats are fussy eaters alright :rolleyes:

Sam Kade · 25-03-2017 8:41pm

tomwaterford wrote: »

Why would someone want to live before the internet was around?

The world is what you make of it,chances are if your miserable unhappy person now....you'll still be a miserable unhappy person if a time machine landed you back to the times you want to

What age are you Tom? The internet was only starting to take off around 1999, 18 years ago, also many people around now lived without it perfectly fine. If anything the internet is making people more stupid.

25-03-2017 8:47pm

Not really, though being born 3 years earlier, in England, and turning 18 in 1989 might have been pretty special...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HzzOLu_2CY

pickarooney · 25-03-2017 8:51pm

Candie wrote: »

I guess living through the entire Axial Age would exceed average life expectancy by a little too much, so I'll settle for the twenty years that made up the Age of Invention from 1870 -1890 when human artistry and ingenuity went into overdrive and the telephone, the car, steam and gas turbines, the first vaccinations, the phonograph and a load of other stuff I can't remember was invented, and great writers and artists like Twain, Chekov, Rodin and Doztoevsky were made immortal.

Disco would have been fun too though.

You would have had absolutely no knowledge of all of that when living in that period. You'd need to pick a time where you can experience something first hand.

Yourself isit · 25-03-2017 9:01pm

pickarooney wrote: »

You would have had absolutely no knowledge of all of that when living in that period. You'd need to pick a time where you can experience something first hand.

Why wouldn't she be aware of what was going on specifically in the age of invention?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 25-03-2017 9:03pm

Yourself isit wrote: »

Why wouldn't she be aware of what was going on specifically in the age of invention?

Because there was little or no communication of much invention at the time, outside the elite.

Permabear · 25-03-2017 9:09pm

This post has been deleted.

pickarooney · 25-03-2017 9:11pm

Sam Kade wrote: »

Goats are fussy eaters alright :rolleyes:

It never stops being hilarious when you pretend to misunderstand 'kid' meaning 'child' as 'kid' meaning 'young goat'! Keep up the good work

Yourself isit · 25-03-2017 9:14pm

Gunnar Melted Manger wrote: »

Because there was little or no communication of much invention at the time, outside the elite.

Nonsense. They were all world changing inventions. That's the point. People were well aware in the first world.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 25-03-2017 9:55pm

I grew up in the 70's and 80's and wouldn't change that for the world. I am so glad that I'm not a 90's//00's child who will never experience a non digital simpler world.

scamalert · 25-03-2017 10:13pm

BionicRasher wrote: »

Would have loved to be born late 40s America. Hitting my twenties in the 60s and experiences in places like LA and New York. Wow that was a great time.

but born black

Sam Kade · 25-03-2017 10:58pm

pickarooney wrote: »

It never stops being hilarious when you pretend to misunderstand 'kid' meaning 'child' as 'kid' meaning 'young goat'! Keep up the good work

In case it has slipped your mind a kid is a young goat, no misunderstanding about it

ToddyDoody · 25-03-2017 10:59pm

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly wrote: »

I often wish I'd lived in the late Georgian period. Obviously as part of the protestant ascendancy, not some native scratching myself in a mud cabin.

Another culchie bashing thread.

Sam Kade · 25-03-2017 11:00pm

scamalert wrote: »

but born black

In Mississippi :eek:

DoozerT6 · 25-03-2017 11:03pm

Whatever about being born in a different time, but in this age of easy travel, I've long found it fascinating that there were generations of people worldwide who, until the availability of affordable mass transport, had probably never travelled further than a couple of towns away from where they were born (or outside their city). If you weren't travelling to somewhere 'distant' for a specific reason, possibly for work opportunities, or a thirst for exploration, then you basically didn't go anywhere you couldn't reach on a horse/horse and cart, there and back, within a couple of days. Distances we would now commute daily for work by car would have been a full days journey only a few generations ago.

If I had to pick an era to have been born in, I would pick the monied gentry of the early 1900's a la Downton or Upstairs Downstairs.

I'd be Upstairs, obvs

titan18 · 25-03-2017 11:14pm

If I could be born as a higher social class person at the height of the Roman empire, that'd have been nice, or Venice/Florence in the early 1500s would have been nice.

tomwaterford · 25-03-2017 11:19pm

Sam Kade wrote: »

What age are you Tom? The internet was only starting to take off around 1999, 18 years ago, also many people around now lived without it perfectly fine. If anything the internet is making people more stupid.

The internet is perhaps the greatest thing to ever happen the world....virtually anything you want to learn/find out is there and relatively easily found

I doubt it's making people stupuider....but it's making the stupid people more noticeable perhaps??

Would you swop having the internet for having no internet??

DoozerT6 · 25-03-2017 11:28pm

The internet isn't making people stupider, but it is making them lazier. There is NOTHING you can't find out from pressing a couple of buttons on your laptop or phone while sitting on your couch. Prior to the internet, to find out something or research something you had to look up a book, get up and go to the library, interact with your friends/other people to see if they knew the answer, do a bit of lateral thinking to see if you could remember or figure out the answer, actually do a bit of legwork so to speak. Nowadays you don't even have to stand up.

Having said that, the internet is a wonderful tool.

Tigerbaby · 25-03-2017 11:35pm

ubiquitous knowledge didnt just suddenly arrive with the "internet".

I was born in the 60's, information was everywhere. Short-Wave/ Long Wave radio/Newspapers/ encyclopedias / libraries.

However, discernment, perception and intelligence, as now, were not mandatory, and oft in short supply.

please helpThank YOU · 26-03-2017 3:52am

Ireland in 1200s when the Normans arrived in Ireland. going into Kings John Castle in Limerick get drunk in the 1200s have a great Craic.

Pac1Man · 26-03-2017 4:51am

Give me a nice damp European town with poor sanitation between 1346–1353. Ahh yes I can nearly smell it!

WHIP IT! · 26-03-2017 8:42am

Went to see The Kinks Musical this week. Reaffirmed my wish to have lived through the Swingin' Sixties... what a time for music!

EDIT: However, if I was going back in a time machine, I'd defo bring johnnies - those dirty gets were AT IT!!

Galwayguy35 · 26-03-2017 10:16am

Pac1Man wrote: »

Give me a nice damp European town with poor sanitation between 1346–1353. Ahh yes I can nearly smell it!

Don't know would that be the best time to pick, wasn't the Black Death around that time?!

Sam Kade · 26-03-2017 10:16am

tomwaterford wrote: »

The internet is perhaps the greatest thing to ever happen the world....virtually anything you want to learn/find out is there and relatively easily found

I doubt it's making people stupuider....but it's making the stupid people more noticeable perhaps??

Would you swop having the internet for having no internet??

DoozerT6 wrote: »

The internet isn't making people stupider, but it is making them lazier. There is NOTHING you can't find out from pressing a couple of buttons on your laptop or phone while sitting on your couch. Prior to the internet, to find out something or research something you had to look up a book, get up and go to the library, interact with your friends/other people to see if they knew the answer, do a bit of lateral thinking to see if you could remember or figure out the answer, actually do a bit of legwork so to speak. Nowadays you don't even have to stand up.

Having said that, the internet is a wonderful tool.

Hmmm I wonder

Pac1Man · 26-03-2017 10:55am

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Don't know would that be the best time to pick, wasn't the Black Death around that time?!

Great! You want to go too. We'll go together!

I'll be the doctor with the large beak and cloak. You can be the wealthy Lord who had always treated people poorly until your only heir contracts the infection.

You inlist my help and after a few close calls I finally cure your son. You see this as a life changing moment. You realise the real riches in your life are the people around you.

You skip along the damp streets the following morning and give the local beggar boy two silver coins, instructing him to buy the largest goose he can find from the local butcher who turns out to be Michael Caine.

As a reward, you give me the deeds to the local brothel and a DeLorean with a full service history.

How about it?

sjb25 · 26-03-2017 11:02am

Oh I'd love to have been a pirate I would be a terrible pirate but....

DoozerT6 · 26-03-2017 12:21pm

Sam Kade wrote: »

Hmmm I wonder

:D

It's a real word apparently!

Delphinium · 26-03-2017 12:39pm

I was born in the mid fifties and was lucky to escape polio in Cork. But I am of the first generation of southern Irish to escape any war or fighting. While my childhood wasn't poor we had no luxuries and I was just in time for free education and easy enough access to third level. Good job and life. But medicine was not sufficiently advanced to save my baby son from cancer. Had a forward looking father so didn't miss any opportunities because I'm female. Wish I had rejected religion when I knew it was not for me from my very early days, even pre Confirmation.
Reaping the benefits of new technology now and hope I can keep up with modern life.

Anesthetize · 26-03-2017 12:49pm

I was born in 1986 and I wouldn't change that for any other time. By the time I was a teenager in the 00's there were no problems getting a part-time job and saving money. I managed to put myself through college and buy my first car with little assistance from my parents, something I probably couldn't have done if I was born 10 years earlier or 10 years later.

myshirt · 26-03-2017 12:53pm

The only thing about traveling back in time is that you will continually have to rebuild the time machine.

Sam Kade · 26-03-2017 8:24pm

DoozerT6 wrote: »

:D

It's a real word apparently!

I never said it wasn't but it's the lazy mans way of writing more stupid

TGJD · 26-03-2017 8:28pm

Definitely not. We are at the peak of technology and knowledge. I think I'd miss having internet and access to any entertainment and knowledge right at my fingertips had I been born in a different era.

DanielODonnell · 27-03-2017 3:31am

Pre anglo and pre plantation Ulster, the most notorious men of british isles history, i would have liked to be a monk though so that i could just write about the battles rather than be involved in them

Lt Dan · 27-03-2017 8:36am

DanielODonnell wrote: »

Pre anglo and pre plantation Ulster, the most notorious men of british isles history, i would have liked to be a monk though so that i could just write about the battles rather than be involved in them

Weren't the monasteries the first place invaders went to ransack ? They were not too keen on living witnesses behind to record the tale either

Celibacy? No talking?

What happens when you spend hours drawing on a manuscript and mess up a slight bit? Have to start all over again (I presume)

Capt'n Midnight · 31-03-2017 12:33am

sjb25 wrote: »

Oh I'd love to have been a pirate I would be a terrible pirate but....

There's a book you need to read.

https://www.amazon.com/If-Pirate-Must-Be-Caribbean/dp/1602396248

Real Piracy was very different to Disney. They mostly used small boats in ambushes close to the shore rather than ships on the high seas.

A lot of cases of piracy were captains looking the other way when pirates "took" the cargo in exchange for a cut in the profits.

And back then slaves were cargo, only rescued when they could be monetised

Today the laws on piracy are pretty much the same as they've always been. Anyone navy catching a pirate in open waters can apply their countries laws. If the Chinese catch you trying to attack the Holyhead ferry the only reason they won't sent your family the bill for the bullet is that the Chinese don't send bills anymore,

dd972 · 31-03-2017 1:42am

20 years later would have been nice to have access to the internet pretty much all my life.

Glenster · 31-03-2017 1:48am

Tigerbaby wrote: »

ubiquitous knowledge didnt just suddenly arrive with the "internet".

I was born in the 60's, information was everywhere. Short-Wave/ Long Wave radio/Newspapers/ encyclopedias / libraries.

However, discernment, perception and intelligence, as now, were not mandatory, and oft in short supply.

When I was in primary school it was all about Encarta and the World Book Encyclopedia.

Dont believe the hype, It was sh*t, they were sh*t and people were stupider in general.

I wouldn't change the era I was born in. Earlier and I would have been an adult when the internet came in. Later and I would have had to deal with it as a young child.

jimmycrackcorm · 31-03-2017 2:09am

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly wrote: »

I often wish I'd lived in the late Georgian period. Obviously as part of the protestant ascendancy, not some native scratching myself in a mud cabin.

Are you generally happy with the timing of your birth?

Sorry, can you repeat. I couldn't hear you because we had no internet in that era.

Lt Dan · 31-03-2017 11:58am

Come to think of it. The era when porn movies was at a glamorous peak as covered by Boogie Nights would have been fun to be around if you were Dirk Diggler.

The rise to fame, the drugs, the fall outs, the humiliating lows, the women, the HIV scares, the drugs , the money, the drugs, the women, ............

"I'm a big , bright, shining star"

eamonnq · 31-03-2017 12:03pm

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

Winterlong · 31-03-2017 12:32pm

I would love to have been a well to do 20 year old living in California around about 1967. The hippie generation would have suited me.
Would need to get a long wig by about 1974 though.

kunst nugget · 31-03-2017 12:53pm

Winterlong wrote: »

I would love to have been a well to do 20 year old living in California around about 1967. The hippie generation would have suited me.
Would need to get a long wig by about 1974 though.

Hardcore hippy types are usually the most uptight **** you're ever going to meet. I was fascinated with the era myself but the older I get the more I think it would have been full of leeching ****, tripping all day and talking pure scutter and then topping it off by playing godawfully shíte blues rock all night.

764dak · 01-04-2017 4:16am

BionicRasher wrote: »

Would have loved to be born late 40s America. Hitting my twenties in the 60s and experiences in places like LA and New York. Wow that was a great time.

Weren't Irish still hated back then?

Go Tobban · 01-04-2017 4:28am

Have been brushing up on my history lately and the more I learn, the more I thanks the universe I was born in this era

Despite the media suggesting otherwise, we are living in a very peaceful time in comparison to prior historic times. It's not perfect, nor will it ever be, but we are lucky to be alive at this stage, especially in the west

Would you prefer to have been born in a different era?

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