Stating that life should be hard now because your ancestors had it worse is completely missing the point. They all strived to make life better for their progeny. We need to be doing the same. That means refusing to accept things being worse than necessary.
I have nothing against wanting to improve your condition or striving for better - but expecting something just because you were born or a human - really needs some reality checking.
Also your notion that human condition constantly improves through history is not a given - things can very much regress and humanity can disappear.
It's very probable that your highest contribution to society is 9-5 and supporting enough >2 kids - but it's not very popular to say that I guess.
Everyone is entitled to fight for better conditions
>things can very much regress
That was gp's point
Which life is better on the whole? That of an apex predator in its natural environment or that of livestock?
There is a case to be made that modern humans have been progressively turned into domesticated livestock, abstracted from their ancestral, natural habitat since the neolithic revolution.
It is unclear that cell phones and modern medicine increase net happiness when many work soul sucking, unhealthy sedentary jobs and suffer a long gray existence in nursing homes and hospitals.
I'm not sure how this counters the idea that we should not dedicate our lives to menial jobs. It seems kind of unrelated.
> That attitude is so delusional it's hilarious.
I wish we turned down the snark a little bit at HN.
The existential angst you feel is the price society pays so a few can reap clear benefits while many keep pace with the hedonic hampster wheel.
I mean clearly it is a price worth paying so we can watch people do silly dances on tiktok or summon an uber at 2 am to take us home from the bar.
Justify wasting your life however you want but calling those who don't agree with your cope "delusional" is rich.
I've done this thought exercise many times, traveled extensively, and continue trying different types of work. The truth is that most of us (HN users) have pretty comfortable lives and would be making huge quality of life sacrifices to live the dream of the romanticized past.
There is definitely something to sort out around "what does the high paid knowledge worker do when they no longer have hardship defining their life for them" but I don't know if artificially handicapping yourself and LARPing struggle is the answer.
If you do find the answer then please let me know.
If you aren't happy in your current position you have two choices. You either choose to solve the problem and start taking steps, or you choose to be distracted from the problem.
I know the best times of my life is when I got outside of my comfort zone.
Fear is a cage. The only way out, is through.
Can you articulate the attitude you're reacting against? Because you don't appear to be addressing the OP, who never made a claim about their ancestors having a tough go of it.
> I was not brought into this world to work for 60 years in a job [...] It’s a shame so much of us are forced to spend the best parts of our lives chained to a desk.
Our ancestors would kill for the ability to replace their existence by a desk job.
Man of our ancestors didn't survive the winter, or the plague, or slavery...that doesn't mean I want or necessarily need to wear my self out for someone else's portfolio.
I've had years where I was only present the last 5 minutes before passing out each night. the other 23:55 of the day spent in a mad rush, eat/sleep/work/repeat.
That's nothing to be proud of, especially if you don't have to.
Likely many of them did kill for the ability to make sure their children had a better life than they did.
But also, why would we need to be sensitive of their feelings?
However, the basic human "I don't want more then this" was present in all of them.
It is nit like everyone in history was simultaneously subject of famine, tuberculosis and then died in childbirth.
I have to admit that's a new one when it comes to defending the status quo of our work culture
We are here because the human race improved itself, its conditions, to lessen and adapt to environmental limitations and even our own political issues. Not because we worked 50 hour weeks in dead end jobs.
Sorry but your ancestors were regularly getting eaten alive by wild animals a few generations back (heck it's still an existential threat to some people). People had to resort to canibalism to survive famines. Plague, TB, polio. Just a hundred years ago there was ~1 in 100 chance a woman would die during childbirth. >40% of kids would not live to age of 5 in 1800s
The only reason you were brought into this world is because your ancestors went through shit you can't even imagine, had children, some of which survived to eventually have you.