I am reading a book about the medieval period and the author makes an interesting point: even though by our standards, or by any standard, really, life was miserable - disease, malnutrition, poverty was the norm - that does not necessarily mean people were unhappy. People had strong social bonds, strong religious affiliation, and everyone basically was in the same boat, which gave them comfort. When everyone in your social network is poor and miserable, then being poor and miserable doesn't seem that bad.
Contrast that with a news report I saw yesterday on Marketwire.com which claimed "social media makes 61% of millennials... feel inadequate about their own life and what they have, with 88% comparing themselves to others on social media..."
Technology is great, isn't it?
a. in other words, everyone was by default "[o]n one leg", without the "second leg" of others getting ahead of them: Rashi, who speaks of a >bare foot< at Devarim 8:4, is without comment at 29:4 (your >shoe< did not wear out from on your foot)-- if everyone has the same bare foot, then everyone stands and moves* in a custom-fit shoe!
ReplyDelete*though he merely 'spin his wheels' in the desert for 40 circuitous years
b. "When everyone in your social network" scapegoats the Jew, "then being poor and miserable doesn't seem that bad"...
c. "Technology is great, isn't it?"
technology: a 'systematic treatment' of interpersonal status, material or otherwise: hooray!!