[bluntfang]

>We're not meant to live that way.

I mean, to abstract this a little bit...were we meant to spend 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week, making money for other people simply because they already had money?

Were we meant to live in densely populated cities in apartment buildings that house 10s to 100s of families on a city block?

Were we meant to spend most of our time with our young children and teach them about the world instead of handing them off for 8+ hours of childcare a day starting at age 5 or 6?

this begs the question: what way were we meant to live?

[qubex]

> this begs the question: how were we meant to live?

In the savanna in social groups of about fifty or less related individuals leading a hunger-gatherer lifestyle.

I doubt the OP is going to argue that we all head back to that state, though, so I’m going politely disregard their absolutist and ex cattedra remarks.

[Johnjonjoan]

Why not also tropical rainforest? (I'm assuming you're saying we are meant to live how we did at our inception)

IMO using the word meant implies a purpose and I don't think there is one here.

[qubex]

I was just giving a quick & dirty reply, and my knowledge of anthropology is quite limited. As I understand it we evolved out of the African savanna. If there are other niches we evolved in (rather than expanded to), those would also be a valid response.

[UncleOxidant]

Yeah, it was more like eric_b saying he wasn't meant to live that way. Many of the rest of us enjoyed the slower pace, the chance to connect with family, the chance to enjoy simple pleasures like baking bread and planting a garden. I looked at the "lockdown" (which wasn't really a lockdown - see Wuhan for a real lockdown) period as a sort of sabbath for the world.

I suppose a lot of the difference in how you view that period of "lockdown" could have to do with your living situation. If you're single living in an apartment without a yard then, yes, I could see that it could be pretty awful. If you live with family and pets in a house with a yard it was pretty nice and I suspect a lot of us in that situation will look back on that period positively as time goes by - as in we'll actually become nostalgic about it.