[ilammy]

> Incidentally, the "many centuries ago" framing is revealing of a general attitude I've noticed from Americans

They don’t say “in Europe 100 miles is a long way, in America 100 years is a long time” for nothing.

100 years ago WW1 just finished. 200 years ago saw a peak of slave imports into US. 300 years ago thirteen colonies just finished forming. 400 years ago colonization just started. 500 years ago Columbus’ expeditions were still news.

Not to say that nothing happened in Europe in the meantime lol, but this sets a perspective quite well. “100 years ago” is effectively “eternity” for an individual human. Only societies can retain memories at that scale.

[ploika]

Surely you don't consider your grandparents' childhoods to be "eternity" ago.

[arcticfox]

I feel almost maybe 80% as removed from WWI-era society as I do from Roman society, tbh. It's almost equally hard to imagine living in either era. Post-WWII (my parents' childhood's) starts to feel more connected. I imagine this is wildly different for individuals. For me, 100 years ago does feel about "an eternity" ago.

[groestl]

> I imagine this is wildly different for individuals.

It's definitely different if you happen to live in an old European city like Vienna (like I do). There's castles, buildings and places named after people and events from that era everywhere. Everytime you get tap water you're reminded (Wiener Hochquellenwasserleitung). It's not hard to imagine living in the middle ages even, since there's lots of artefacts from that age too.

[andrewflnr]

There's a lot riding on the word "effectively", but in terms of how well I can imagine it or empathize with it, my grandparents' childhood is not far off any other time in history. The signal is mostly already gone.

[LarryMullins]

In many families, grandparents and particularly great-grandparents are 'pre-history'. I could tell you maybe about a dozen facts about the lives of two of my eight great grandparents, but that's it. What can I say about the childhoods of my grandparents if I hardly even know who their parents were?