kestrel

Prompt 003: Past Favourite Past

3. What past decade or century would you consider your favorite and why? Do you think you'd be happier living back then or in the present day and why?

I wonder what it would be like to go back to pre-historic times. Before human history had been recorded, governments and empires fashioned and slaves captured. I think I would like to go back to those times. To be a native American tribesperson. To be an ancient farmer of China. To be a subsistence fisher of remote Scandinavia. The world before people attempted to conquer and rule one another. How far back would I need to go?

All of human history has been of subjugation and conquest. A story of abuse, deceit, and manipulation. Even incredible technological advancements were immediately or implicitly "acquired" by rulers of one stripe or another to be used for their own ends. Every Great Wonder of the world, the printing press, the telephone, architecture... All were eventually co-opted by the ruling class to keep down the common members of humanity.

So to go to a time before governments could have a foothold would be my choice, if it were possible. Before natural resources of the world could be exploited for profit. Before slavery existed. Before debt existed. Before Australia became a prison colony. Before smallpox had been inflicted on the Susquehannock, or blood sacrifices were demanded of the Aztecs. Before the world could even conceive the notion of being over-crowded. Before organized religion.

Life would be "nasty, brutish, and short," as a wise man once said. It sounds like a beautiful, amazing, imperfect time. Particularly compared to now. But I have to admit that it did, at one time, actually exist.

[NOTE: I know these entries were out of order. I'll do better to stay on track from now on.]