Where would you like to live "medieval period" or into this "modern period"?

Modern.

And by modern, I mean between 1870 and 1959ish.

I need my A/C and toilet paper….so modern period….besides my life would be different from all the blasphemy charges that the church would throw at me.

Two words.. Modern Dentistry.

I would like to visit, but I would miss my computer too much to live there.

@talljasperman
They’d leave you alone if you didn’t make a scene.

@Nullo They don’t even leave me alone now….except recently when I started staying indoors watching digital TV

I want the medieval buildings and a lot of the clothes, but I want modern healthcare and… some modern technology.

Well, between the incredible social stratification, the rampant disease, complete lack of personal hygiene, the likelihood of being killed, raped, or tortured by invaders in some random war (or by your friendly neighborhood lord), the religious indoctrination, terrible sexism and all around brutality of life in ye olde tymes, I’d say we have it pretty good right now.

In the medieval period great natural effects,great aesthetics than modern period.
The life the medieval period was not hectic.
Medieval period tells us how to live life?

If “Modern” means this general period, I’ll copy @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard‘s answer, or go just a bit earlier. Thoreau claimed that he “was born in the most favored spot on earth — and just in the nick of time, too.” I kind of think he was right.

The lack of light pollution during the Medieval period is almost enough for me to want to choose that, right now.
Also,of the utmost importance is Location, location, location. Does the term “Medieval” necessarily refer to Europe? I’d be more willing to live with the Native Americans than to live as a serf on a manor. (Or does the “Modern” period include a sense of choice not present in the first option?)

modern technology is a must have (heath etc) the medieval time are fascinating but I don’t think I really be wanting to shove my body into a corset and squish all my organs together…
But some of the clothes are pretty… cancel out the corset and i’ll agree with @DrasticDreamer

I would rather live in the modern period in comparison with the medieval period, but I would love to visit medieval times. I think it would be amazing. I would love to see what it was like back then, back when England was full of forests and everything. It would be awesome.

I want to go to 1280 around the time the Carmina Burana poems were being written. I would also love to see the Roman Empire during its apex around the year 120.

I think the question would be, “Why would anyone want to live in the medieval times?”. Is there something I’m missing that made that time exceptional and wonderful or something lol?

@talljasperman
I’m pretty sure that they’d leave you alone more than we do here. Back then, everybody was some kind of Christian (though admittedly not always the best or most authentic kind of Christian), and thus there was less in the way of evangelism. Nowadays, there are many who are clearly unsaved.

I’d definitely give the Medieval period a chance.

@Blackberry There were people in the world with taste. Western culture was actually alive rather than rotting from the inside out. The music was far better than today. Things were actually made to last. No advertising. You actually knew where your food came from. Owning land meant something. Wars were fought honorably. No pop stars. Actual communities existed.

Except for some social and technological differences, I don’t think we have much on that more dignified age. Even those who were “oppressed” by today’s standards were able to take pride in automatically having a place in a real community. Human beings weren’t as commodified then; there were too few people to waste. Now we are all marketing and fund-raising fodder, fit for nothing but the gratification of other people’s desires.

@Blackberry Lol, I agree. Why anyone would want to live back in those days beats me. The lack of technology, the poor health and lower life expectancy, the blatant sexism, racism and homophobia would outweigh any reasons for wanting to live in the medieval ages.

@aeschylus – Taste for what? Compared to what? Western Culture in Medieval times was imperialistic, isolationist, fundamentalist, rigidly stratified, racist, sexist, and generally ignorant. How much medieval music have you actually listened to? Things were made to last because they were the only things you would ever own. There has been advertising ever since people have sold products. Owning land meant you could abuse everyone who lived on it and tax them up to the point of starvation, and sometimes beyond. Wars were incredibly brutal and civilian populations were routinely slaughtered. There were no pop stars (barring the king and the pope) because there was no communication beyond a few miles unless you were royalty. Actual communities (by which I imagine you mean peasant villages) were bonded together by common misery and poverty, and because they weren’t allowed to live anywhere else or do anything except farm and die.

Those social and technological differences you so lightly toss aside mean that we don’t regularly die of disease and infection, live in houses instead of hovels, have basic sanitation, etc. etc. In what way do you imagine peasants weren’t subject to the gratification of their ruler’s desires?

Also, everyone had skin diseases and horrible teeth.

The height of the Renaissance, maybe. But the Dark Ages? Fuck that.

@HTDC

Aren’t there blatant sexism, racism and homophobia today, too?
I’d personally rather be gay in Renaissance Italy than, say, in 1950s America.
Or in 2010 Iran.

But medieval times, no. No way.

South of France circ. 1800

Assuming you could explain the concept to them, any intellectual from the medieval ages would have gladly sold their soul to have access to the internet and thousands of public libraries.
-Dan

Can I pick who I am in each period, or will it be random?

@Hobbes I don’t see how Western Culture isn’t any of those things today, except perhaps that we are constantly in denial about it. We don’t have a good record of medieval music, but what we do have are constant references to it in “early music,” of which Palestrina is probably the best example. Extant chants bespeak a highly developed sensitivity for melody, timbre, and the communication of spiritual content. Furthermore, music was free and no one feigned to “own” it. Folk music was widespread and practiced mostly by people whose only concern was playing music that people liked rather than making their every thought a degrading novelty to be immediately disseminated across the globe. I don’t see a problem with owning few, well made things. And I especially don’t see a problem with living in a well-made city that actually had to have people in mind by necessity, rather than cities built for cars. Perhaps you forget that there were cities with merchant classes, tradesmen, and people who travelled abroad to learn, negotiate, and trade.

Wars are still extremely brutal and civilian populations are still and will always be routinely slaughtered. The difference is that now the experience of war entails no relationship with your enemy or your craft. Most of the people on Earth are still living the life of peasants except that their lot is even worse as a result of the particular shape globalization has taken. Local culture is non-existent and perhaps no longer even possible. Every social problem you invoke exists now on a greater and more cunningly concealed scale.

As for advertising, mass media is qualitatively different from a sign posted outside of the shop and a few hand-written leaflets distributed by someone yelling in the street.

Decipimur specie recti, that’s all I’m trying to say. “We are deceived by the appearance of right.” Very few of the social problems of the medieval period have actually gone anywhere. We are every bit as human now as we have always been, and we shall continue to be so. The difference is that technology has facilitated a wholesale abstraction of every aspect of our lives until there is no longer any possibility of genuine experience. Drifting through life as a coddled “consumer” doll in a false cloak of security is dishonest and degrading on a level that would have been unimaginable just 200 years ago. No one has the right to think the world is safe as long as people live in it, and I think people living in the 11–1500s had a much more genuine relationship with every aspect their environment than any of us could ever hope to achieve.

“Every social problem you invoke exists now on a greater and more cunningly concealed scale.”

Evidence? So you’re saying that social problems such as sexism, racism, and homophobia are actually greater than they were in medieval times? A woman was property back then. Look at differences between just the last century and now. Women were not allowed to vote, black people were enslaved, black people were not allowed to vote, being gay was punishable by imprisonment or execution. Those things are not done now in many places. Where is the evidence that the problems are actually greater? Seems to me like they are quite a bit lesser. By no means eradicated, but certainly lesser.

Honestly, sometimes I think these radical views are just radical for the sake of radical…

Funnily enough I was giving this some thought the other night. I decided that I would opt for the inter-war period 1919–1939. Firstly, I love the art-deco furniture & architecture. Additionally I think people looked the best in this period, fashion wise…. plus men could still wear hats, which is a good thing.

@TheJoker: I personally LOVE womans’ fashion anytime from 1919–1945. Very sharp. Men didn’t look too bad either.

@DominicX Absolutely. Women in Africa and the Middle East are no better off than they were then, and there are far more of them. Power dynamics between Men and Women even in “developed” countries have not changed so much as the pundits of technological and social “progress” would have us believe. The stratification of society is more pronounced now than ever before in human history. More than a billion people can no longer feed themselves even though they have access to farmland. 50% of the world’s quantifiable wealth is in the hands of 2% of the world’s population.

Genital mutilation in Africa, stoning of Women in the Middle East, occupation of sovereign states by foreign powers: raping and pillaging are still with us.

Besides offering evidence for that, I think you’re missing the point of my argument. I’m saying first of all that the scale of the atrocities is greater and the character of them has changed. All I’m really trying to get across is that progress, as an idea, means a departure from something just as much as it means an arrival at something else. I also believe, personally, that we have lost more than we know in exchange for what we have gained. Namely, the freedom to directly experience life, in all its inevitable horror, poignancy, and beauty. Also, it is naive to believe that human beings are not going to do awful things to one another because of ignorance and greed, and technology only makes it easier to do it without facing the consequences.

@aeschylus

I’m not saying that those things do not still exist as I mentioned before. Of course they do, and yes, they have changed form. But that doesn’t mean that progress hasn’t been made in some areas. There have been many advancements, particularly in social and medical fields, and I just do not think one can deny it. Progress is extremely slow-going and it doesn’t affect all places in the world at once, unfortunately. But it does happen. I would rather be homosexual now in America than I would in Catholic-dominated Italy in 1400. I would rather be a woman now than in France in 1300.

Furthermore, as for your points about music, I believe music is one of the most subjective experiences there is. There is no scale to judge music; it’s based on individual perception and individual appreciation. I am someone who listens to mainstream pop music as well as medieval and Renaissance music such as Palestrina.

“Also, it is naive to believe that human beings are not going to do awful things to one another because of ignorance and greed, and technology only makes it easier to do it without facing the consequences.”

I agree completely with that and never disagreed with the essence of that.

We all want a perfect world. Neither the medieval world nor the modern world is ideal. They both have strengths and they both have faults. I suppose which one you would want to live in depends on which of the strengths and faults are more important to you and which ones affect you as an individual more strongly.

@DominicX In that case I think we are closer to agreement than we thought. Nor do I deny that progress has been made. I just think it is hasty (as in the case of the response which I originally addressed) to assume that progress means that everything is better without anything having been lost in the process.

I love having the internet, for example, but I also really resent having my shit piped into a marine ecosystem instead of composting on the dunghill, and my food coming from faceless corporations that claim to own certain species of life, while being virtually powerless to stop it.

definitely today! would miss my golf to much! Also, like my doctor, dentist, my meds to allow my to live longer, etc. And, do not want to get up in the middle of the night and have to go outside to use the bathroom when it is below zero outside. loll yikesssssssssssss

Right now, or anywhere between now and the undetermined future. Not in the past.
Despite all the nostalgia and romanticisation of the past, it was ugly, messy and by almost all accounts worse than now.

@ragingloli the best day of your life is today! Certainly understand your comment!

I would love to visit the medieval period, but I know I couldn’t live there. Not only would I miss modern technology too much, but I know, realistically, that I wouldn’t survive very long without modern medicine.

@absalom Of course racism and sexism still exist, but not nearly to the degree as it did in medieval times. Seems like the only reason most people can give to wanting to go back there is because the clothes were nice…

@LunaChick yeah, for about one day! loll

If i have decent wealth (money etc) and I get to wear pants (maybe i’ll wear a dress sometimes).... also if i get to carry around an awesome looking sword/weapon and have my own group of friends traveling from town to town, adventuring out then ye, medieval time would be fun, i’m game

@bean…. It’d have to be breeches & a cod piece, no pants I’m afraid.

@TheJoker O: breeches i’ll wear but not the cod piece…. how bout we just dress up as pirates?

ok maybe i’ll wear the dress… it seems more comfortable than breeches and a cod piece… but like hell anyone is going to make me wear a corset… i’d like to breath you know…

@bean….. Hahahahaha-argh-Jim-lad, I’m all up for a little piratie action… so long as we don’t have to break into spontaneous song, as in Muppets Treasure Island. I think a dress would suit very nicely… something in the style of Kiera Knightly in Pirates of the Caribbean perhaps… but if you didn’t wear the corset how on Earth are you planning on swooning? I hear it was very popular with you young ladies back in the day.

@TheJoker LOL　hahahaha…. question is do i really wanna be swooning? Kiera Knightly had some of the best costumes, if we could all wear costumes like that life would just be so much more interesting lol you can fake the swooning i guess if you didn’t wear a corset…. muppets treasure island must be one of the best movies i have ever seen…. Ye, I love singing… but I don’t really want to break into spontaneous song… it would be a little awkward haha…

Medieval architecture, dress, customs, etc. are fun, but give me modern sanitation and medical services any day. Unless I could take my knowledge back then with me (a la Mark Twains “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court”) I’ll stay in this era.

I love my internet,central heating and microwave. No Medieval Times Cruiser!

@bean…. Hahahaha, nothing wrong with a good swoon, so long as there’s someone there to catch you…. Kiera had Orlando, but who’d should we pick for you…? He’s probably a little old but, from your pic, I think Karl Urban would be a good match for ya.
I agree, my office would be infinitely improved by people wearing pirate & wench costumes…. on second thoughts, considering the shape of most people round here, perhaps that’s not such a fab idea :)
I love the Muppet movies, Treasure Island is ace, Rizzo just kills me throughout, especially love the Rat Package Holiday Tour idea…. & Tim Curry’s brilliant as always (incidentally, he plays Pennywise the Clown that I mentioned the other day).
Heh, I love a decent sing meself…. A few drinks & a copy of Singstar is a dangerous mix around me…

Oh I was hoping for a ticket to westworld.

@TheJoker haha! Karl Urban…. not bad, I am 19…. i guess in those days it didn’t matter how old the guy was, girls married young and married older guys… people who work an office job would look awesome in medieval clothing lol
Tim Curry is awesome…. he can catch me any day! he makes an awesome pirate hahaha
LOL the Holiday idea was funny, and Rizzo is so cute haha
France in the old days had some pretty good clothes, especially when you are rich haha, but I definitley be a bit hesitant to go back to France 1800 or around that time… i think
be dead scared to get my head decapitated

Medieval, do you know how bad i want to be a viking or a ninja?

@JesusWasAJewbot viking or ninja be so cool! O:

99% of all western people are unable to live in simulated conditions of the years 1900 or 1600 or 1200. My guess is that over 90% wouldn’t even last for more than 3 days. There are experiments (some shown on television) investigating this matter.

@bean… Haha, yeh, he’s annoyingly cool…. 19 eh?! Heh, they did have different ideas about relationships back then didn’t they, being unmarried & your age, they’d probably think there was something odd about you, hehehe.
Sooooo, bit of a Curry fan eh?! He is a class actor…. never exactly pictured him in the category of ‘romantic interest’ though, you naughty young thing you! Still, you probably just made his day :)
Hah, they were abit fond of the old neck-chopping action back then… I’d definitely choose pre-revolutionary France over post-revolutionary, any day. Especially if it’s anything like that Kirsten Dunst movie, Marie Antoinette. Now what is it about those dresses that make you ladies look so damn fine…. Oh yeh, low cut & very, very tight, D’oh!

@TheJoker ha, those dressers were so gorgeous, I’d wear those! and true! if I was unmarried and 19 people would probably think me old and weird hahaha eek!
Tim Curry is awesome, pretty good actor what can I say…. I like characters that have more to them, villain’s are just so much more interesting haha
maybe visit pre revolutionary France but then revolution comes we make a run for it!
Marie Antoinette with Kirstin Dunst had really cool costumes, I’d wear that too! and so colorful!

@bean Cant agree more, they were more like works of art than mere clothing… not sure if I fancy wearing what the men were sporting at the same time though, I’m not really a fan of wearing tights…. although I do have the legs for it, hehehehe!
Heh, I’m up for that, but where to go after the revolution….? Perhaps Venice. The Venetians always had an eye for good parties & fashion, or even London, it’d be full of well dressed, cash heavy French aristocrats. We could copy the film Plunkett & Mclean & do a batch of stylish highway robberies (if you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend it).
I was very pleasantly surprised by that film, really entertaining & visually spectacular, think the costumes won an Oscar. I’m sure you’d look a treat In one.

omg!! there is NO comparison. Clean water, relatively clean food, medicines, technology, and diversity. DEFIANTLY modern era! The thought about going to the bathroom in the grass and not take a bath for months at a time isn’t really appealing to me. Oh yea, and my race would of probably got me killed in some way or another.

@TheJoker then it’s settled LOL wearing awesome medieval clothing we run away to venice where we are hopefully safe and sound.
Then we go holidaying in london finding even more expensive jewelery and clothes to suit our fashion, haha i’ll check out that movie Plunkett and Mclean…. sounds like Bonnie and Clyde ha!

I would like to live during the beginning of the Enlightenment when serious pursuit of science and math was just starting out and everything looked bright and hopeful. The biggest obstacle would be to purge my mind of how things actually turned out.

@bean… Sweet! I guess one of us had better get started on building a time machine now…. um, you any good at science? Haha.

@TheJoker uh oh…. i don’t think i specialize in that part of science…. hmm… haha
i’ll look out for any astronomical time rips or worm holes… fingers crossed lol

@bean…. Well, there’s bound to be one around here somewhere, everythings somewhere after all…. & if not, I suggest we just dress up as discussed & go crash Buckingham Palace, I’m sure Queenie wont mind!

@TheJoker lol yeas…. we’re not mental…. dress up and prance around buckingham palace…. haha i’m sure thats very normal these days :P

I always fantasize about how romantic it would be to have lived in another time. However, when I think of the medical and social advances we’ve made, I don’t really mean it. I would like being a woman of those times, for both medical and societal reasons.

Right now!Although I am not above throwing on a suit of armour to answer questions on Fluther.;)

@bean…. Hahaha, I doubt, with all the freaky stuff the royals get up to, that we’d even be noticed :)

I do not want to live in any time period before the invention of penicillin.

*wouldn’t… I wouldn’t like being a woman of those times. I can apparently no longer read or type. Sorry. :/

Would like to have been a Java Man! Grab my woman by the hair and drag her into the cave and make passionate love too!

Just kidding….not my style, but some women like that! I have been told ! #%$&%&*%

ignorance of history is strong in some here, apparently

I often fancy that living in the medieval time period would rule, but I base this from fiction like films, books and video games, which is probably quite the bs portrayal.

In reality, if I lived in that time period, I would have either been some dude’s property if I were lucky enough to have been born to noble blood, or I would have been some lowly peasant woman who gets raped by knights and her husband, or I woulda been trialed as a witch, tortured and then killed.
These were dark times, and as fascinating as they are, I prefer my electricity and the fact that people don’t think I’m possessed by Satan when my skene glands act up.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard you got it my friend…..

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard as you know, my comment was too be funny…Java man lived before the medieval period!

You are all mostly crazy.

Wiping you butt with seashells, someone always wanting to poison you.
Bad dental work and bad breath. Beds of hay and no health care.. At all… Except for some guy with a jar of leaches and a hot poker, happy to take your last chicken for payment.

The vapors, the plague, the surfs and good luck finding good Surf n’ Turf. I think going back further then the 20th century is nasty. But, romantic.

A mid evil style Castle complete with moat and drawbridge would be wonderful, horse carriage and then perhaps a garage with a Ford Truck, a Computer with Internet would be nice. Just the land space around the Castle would be great because dense housing drives me crazy! the look of the wife chewing on a full size turkey leg would be- Ummm- is wonderful…

Sorry, I got a think for soap and computers (but not at the same time).

Worms, lice, death at age 40, nah, i’ll pass.

@DrMC
I thought that they had soap back then, just not a fondness for bathing. In any case, it’s easy enough to make :D.

Then again, if you did live in the Medieval era but possessed this, you would pretty much be set for life.

@Hobbes
It is more likely that the church would burn you alive at the stake for being a wizard if you had this.

@Hobbes
I am glad that someone has provided help for the accidental time traveler.

@ragingloli: It would depend on whether or not they weighed the same as a duck. :-D

Ducking stool ftw.

@ragingloli
@Dan_DeColumna

As long as you show your work, you’d probably be fine. Or else say that you found it while visiting Athens; there were a lot of Catholics that thought highly of the ancient philosophers. There were even those who would try to reconcile Christianity with Aristotle’s writings, even though they are explicitly incompatible in key places.