the news is so depressing.

I'm French and I'm talking about Europeans..

From my experience with them, most Americans know the number of states but very few can cite more than an half, let alone their capitals..

why do you hang out with such ignorant Americans, Frank?

They are not ignorant, they have a selective knowledge.

They simply don't care about the kind of stuff we Europeans believe to be important.

It's a matter of choice and I'm not going to criticize them for that choice.

In addition, I rarely hang out with ignorant Americans, the last one I met before leaving to Europe is a quite a an amazing mind, with achievements in his life that make lots of other people envious.

I think you are twisting what I said.
I did not want to say we don´t have many more chances than they did earlier, but erown p kind of said that earlier people had no contact with culture and did not travel as if everybody was sitting isolated on a farm far away from everything. That is what I wanted to protest against.
If they had not had a certain interest in things and curiosity we would not have had printing machines, America would never have been found, we would never have any new spices, the list is long.
Even tho it was diffic ult and many dangers on a long trip people travelled quite a bit during the middle ages. On the larger roads in Scandinavia one could meet many travellers, farmers on the their way to markets, munks, pligrims, groups of estate owners with all their help moving from one house to the other. The contacts made en route helped people to get to know more about the world and it was how news spread and here one got contacts with strangers and foreigners and their way of thinking and new things were learned.

I read the news today, oh boy, four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire. And though the holes were rather small, they had to count them all, now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

For a citizen of a country that needed to be bail out two times in the last hundred years by Americans I would be more friendly!

This thread was complaining how bad things are today. My claim is in every measurable way, life in developed countries in the 21st century is better than any other place or time in human history. Arguing about how less worst other times were isn't that interesting.

So pick a time and place in human history, and lets compare. Do you want to start with medieval Scandinavia?

I will argue that people now are more educated. Our governments now are less corrupt. Our societies are more just. People have far more civil rights.

In addition our standard of living is higher. The average worker spends less of our time working for basic subsistence and more time at leisure.
here.

Our health is far better. We live longer. Fewer of our children die. There are far fewer terminal illnesses.

And we are far more knowledgeable. Our kids know math that was once beyond the grasp of all but the most genius adults. We can walk down to the corner bookstore and have access to more knowledge on subjects that earlier generations didn't know existed.

So I offering a very clear challenge: Pick a time and place to compare with the 21st century developed world. Let's compare (and see how good or bad we really have it.

Do you want to start with 17th century Scandanavia?

The real story here is that people will complain no matter how fantastically good things are for them.

May 13th, 2010, 3:57:26 am, Mayor's Income, Tennessee

I'm sure you meant to say ".. except for white men under 40."

We all know they got it bad right now. I feel sorry for 'em. Someone was just pointing out to me, again, the other night, that the white man is the constant bafoon in commercials now. Take notice next time you are watching tv.

It not just commercials it is the news as they show all the old angry white male faces at Tea Party rallies.

Does that ever reflect badly on the rest of us white men!!!!!!!!!

I been very impress with the great depth of your European base personal knowledge of world affairs as shown here.

NOT

I have not denied that we have it much much better than they did even in the 1920s so there is no reason to go back to 1700 even.
All what I was pointing out was that even in the middle ages people did have contact with culture and were travelling and knew about the world outside of their own little village. I did not say that they had it better.
Because we are better educated and can buy books and know more maths than they did does not mean they did not have cultur or were wise - even with less education.

But if you want me to start with 1700 Scandinavia I can tell you that one of my ancestors was a pastor, - certainly not one of those rich people whom you refer to - had contact with people in England and Germany - wrote letters to them and translated lectures for them. He taught school and all his children were educated. We have enough knowledge about him and his family to know that he was very content with his life. His mother again was a maid who married a craftsman and she could write and read and had contact by letters with her children spread almost all over Scandinavia. She got to be almost 100 years old.
Of course there were thousands of people who were poor and unhappy with their lives in those days - so thanks to our welfare state things are much better also for the poor.

Be White Squinney.

realistically, it would be more fitting to say

Be Ecru

PS
I have friends who have been farming the same farm for 8 generations. Do you think that would have been possible if they were not alert and openminded to new things? Educated within their area.
It is not a big estate, a normal size farm.

thank you.

i dont have access to world travel, i barely have access to housing.

i could work twice as much as i do now and barely have time for liesure, wtf liesure do you mean?

hitting the bar on friday and saturday night and spending 20 bucks?

seriously. get. real.

i havent had a job yet where vacation time is even AN OPTION!

but then , most people arent raised in abject poverty.

in america.

if we talk globally, a whole different story. but then, i always assume a global perspective.

I think you answered the wrong person. I have not said anything about white men under 40.

Something about Sweden 1700
The end of 1700 is interesting as there is so much written from those days.
Writing got very popular also amongst normal people. There are little notes, letters, dairies together with protocolls from courts , accounts and all kinds of other written things. We know a lot about life in 1700
Art, music and litterature was at a high point, arcitecture was kind too humans, and handicraft was at its best.
It was a thrilling time for social changes and political revolutions. Gustad III had a wise and foreseeing politic. He called the French the "European Gorillas" and was very afraid of the new ideas and what could happen so he started a very democratic politic. Even non noble men could get work within the state

great improvements were made within medicin and there were less children dying in young age - especially this was true for the west coast. People got older.

this post http://able2know.org/topic/144835-3#post-3989985, belongs in the be black thread