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Wild story.

Yeah, it's easy to shoot holes in "innocent time" but god knows, just in terms of the complexity of what you have to know just to function in society — I am sure it is somehow measurably more complex now then it was then.

So maybe I should have said a simpler time.



I completely understand what you mean - and that there's certainly a psychological weight to the complexity we've added to interpersonal interaction over the last half-century. Spending extended time in cash-focused, relatively low-tech environments (the more rural parts of southern Europe, for example), the difference in psychological load is extremely noticeable. I feel a sort of basic non-comprehension in the US and UK that I don't feel in some other places.

For example - something as simple as going to a grocery shop during the specific hours in which you know it is open, and saying hello to the person you know works that shift, and exchanging metal circles and numbered paper for produce: this process requires significantly less abstract thought - and abstraction of oneself from society - when compared to using a self-checkout and Apple Pay (let alone a delivery app).

That tech all came in before I was 18, so I don't think it's an age thing - I think it's just weird, and complex, and unnatural for the animal brain if one's economic and social dealings don't primarily involve other animals. I don't like living in a vending machine!

I didn't want to shoot holes in any way, to be clear. Innocence is a very reasonable synonym, now that I understand what you mean (without sounding too luddite / romanticising).




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