57. Live Absurdly Decadently By Ancient Standards
(Epistemic status: Personal experience and observation, if well-attested. Associated advice.)
We live in an age of ludicrous material plenty, but all too often, people seem to find themselves lacking something valuable or delicious about life. What good is that sort of notional wealth if your sensory experiences don't seem to reflect that plenty? Clearly, something is missing in the way many people live. if they find themselves dissatisfied with the texture of their daily lives amidst such wealth, unable even to figure out what it is they're missing. What could possibly bridge that gap?
The answer to that riddle is in the very same observation. Consider that many little luxuries nowadays would have been absurdly expensive or even bluntly impossible to come by in ages past, perhaps even as recently as the 18th century. Given the way in which desire and assessment of value often change slowly over the centuries, one can reap massive phenomenological gains by finding that which would have been precious long ago and making use of it to the fullest.
Here's one example: soft colorful clothing. In the Middle Ages, rich fabrics dyed vibrantly in saturated colors were a mark of wealth, even royalty - just think of both royal blue and imperial purple; there was no such thing as coal-tar dye, and the only way of getting rich colors was through the use of plenty of natural dye, often hard to come by. Embroidery, parti-colored cloth, and soft fabric - especially with trim or fixtures - all spoke of obscene wealth, too, for the sheer amount of labor they required, to say nothing of the material costs. And yet today, we have such things all around us for much more cheaply! Putting some effort into caring about your clothes - for your own sake, not just for how they look to others - is one possible way to live decadently by ancient standards, to tickle that shard of you that still wants things that would have been extreme luxuries in the premodern era.
Another example: food technology is vastly better now than any point in the past. I'm not talking about the caloric plenty we now experience, or even about the prevalence of refined sugars, fats, and starches; I'm not even talking about the prevalence of meat or the convenience of having food made to order and brought to you wherever you are - though that last is in a similar vein! I'm talking about how easy it is now to procure all sorts of spices that in past centuries, wars were fought over and entire trading empires rose and fell over. Cinnamon, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, and especially black pepper were all once as good as gold; now you can casually pick up a bottle to use in your cooking and baking.
One last major class of examples comes to mind: decoration and tableware. Clear glass, fine and colorful ceramics, and silver as used in jewelry and tableware all were once the province of the very wealthy, but now they can be had for use fairly inexpensively. Weighty and well-shaped drinking glasses, colorful plates, and sterling silver jewelry can all bring hearts to delight far out of proportion of their costs.
For a wildcard category, we can - again, relatively inexpensively - use modern materials to do things that people of long ago only barely dreamed of. Use magnets to hold objects against walls, or to make for magical-looking clothing fasteners. Acquire massive synthetic gemstones for use in jewelry or just as baubles. Make use of chains of LED lights as decoration. The sky's the limit, and this is all just limited to thinking about material goods, rather than the ease and safety of travel, or the use of wireless signaling and control technology, or the informational plenty that libraries and reputable online sources represent!
We live in an age of ludicrous material plenty, but all too often, people seem to find themselves lacking something valuable or delicious about life. What good is that sort of notional wealth if your sensory experiences don't seem to reflect that plenty? Clearly, something is missing in the way many people live. if they find themselves dissatisfied with the texture of their daily lives amidst such wealth, unable even to figure out what it is they're missing. What could possibly bridge that gap?
The answer to that riddle is in the very same observation. Consider that many little luxuries nowadays would have been absurdly expensive or even bluntly impossible to come by in ages past, perhaps even as recently as the 18th century. Given the way in which desire and assessment of value often change slowly over the centuries, one can reap massive phenomenological gains by finding that which would have been precious long ago and making use of it to the fullest.
Here's one example: soft colorful clothing. In the Middle Ages, rich fabrics dyed vibrantly in saturated colors were a mark of wealth, even royalty - just think of both royal blue and imperial purple; there was no such thing as coal-tar dye, and the only way of getting rich colors was through the use of plenty of natural dye, often hard to come by. Embroidery, parti-colored cloth, and soft fabric - especially with trim or fixtures - all spoke of obscene wealth, too, for the sheer amount of labor they required, to say nothing of the material costs. And yet today, we have such things all around us for much more cheaply! Putting some effort into caring about your clothes - for your own sake, not just for how they look to others - is one possible way to live decadently by ancient standards, to tickle that shard of you that still wants things that would have been extreme luxuries in the premodern era.
Another example: food technology is vastly better now than any point in the past. I'm not talking about the caloric plenty we now experience, or even about the prevalence of refined sugars, fats, and starches; I'm not even talking about the prevalence of meat or the convenience of having food made to order and brought to you wherever you are - though that last is in a similar vein! I'm talking about how easy it is now to procure all sorts of spices that in past centuries, wars were fought over and entire trading empires rose and fell over. Cinnamon, cloves, cumin, nutmeg, and especially black pepper were all once as good as gold; now you can casually pick up a bottle to use in your cooking and baking.
One last major class of examples comes to mind: decoration and tableware. Clear glass, fine and colorful ceramics, and silver as used in jewelry and tableware all were once the province of the very wealthy, but now they can be had for use fairly inexpensively. Weighty and well-shaped drinking glasses, colorful plates, and sterling silver jewelry can all bring hearts to delight far out of proportion of their costs.
For a wildcard category, we can - again, relatively inexpensively - use modern materials to do things that people of long ago only barely dreamed of. Use magnets to hold objects against walls, or to make for magical-looking clothing fasteners. Acquire massive synthetic gemstones for use in jewelry or just as baubles. Make use of chains of LED lights as decoration. The sky's the limit, and this is all just limited to thinking about material goods, rather than the ease and safety of travel, or the use of wireless signaling and control technology, or the informational plenty that libraries and reputable online sources represent!
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