Yes they would think we were softies.

I even see it just in my families immediate generations. My grandfather rode his bike everywhere, and never owned a car. He was fit. He got hit by a car once and waited at the hospital, after a few hours he said screw it, and cycled home.

For me growing up most families had one car, which the working parent drove, so if you needed to get to a friends house or anywhere it was by foot or by bike if it was outside of town. Or waiting several hours at a place for a ride. Being further from home meant you had to sometimes get creative for food. Friend and I once sharpened sticks and spearfished and cooked lunch over a dried stick fire rather than walk all the way back home.

My adult kids are hardworking individuals but they grew up with more modern convenience of 2 cars, uber, functioning bus system, food delivery. If their car or phone app broke, I think they would find walking or biking somewhere a deterrent to following through, especially if it was raining.

And there is the teen generation who you hear instantly complain “oh my gawd, my uber is like 1 minute late, like I have been standing here sooo long” LOL And a parent suggesting they walk leads to “oh my gawduh, then I will be all sweaty!”

That teen is never spearfishing because the walk home is too far. If their phone dies (along with payment app) they will probably have a breakdown/ feel stranded. My grandfather would never be able to fathom somebody being so unreliant on themselves let alone Somebody from 150 years ago seeing an able bodied teen not be able to use their legs.

That’s an interesting question. Many people are answering the question “Would people from 150 years ago think the quality of life is better” instead of “Would they think modern people are weaker.”

I think that depends on how you define “weak” or “strong.” Physically, I think there is less manual labor needed, so in general people from the past may look at us as weaker. The understanding of mental health and resilience is lesser in the past, but if conveyed in relative terms, I do think they would see how more resilient we need to generally be to things now like doom scrolling and algorithms that we are exposed to in the present.

Humans are pretty adaptable. Since we generally have more access to resources now, I would argue modernity has the side effect of hindering our sense of agency. Likewise, we are adapting different “strengths” based on the challenges we get in the present.

would a “standard” commoner from back then laugh at how ‘soft’ our world has become from their point of view?

No, they’d either want the same or they’d think we’re evil magicians and want to burn us at the stake. Who tf wants more infant mortality (except for US Republicans and their ilk).

“Ah yes, dying in childbirth really builds character!”

“Contracting polio really put hair on my son’s chest and made him into the man he is today!”

“I’m so glad I can look forward to a life of hard physical labor and and death at 40. Not like those future weaklings who might survive into their 70s and beyond.”

“Oh, boy. Chattel slavery has been great for us. The family that picks cotton together, sticks together … until our owners decide to sell us off.”

There are a lot of places in the world that aren’t any better than what you’re talking about, and it’s a testament to how resilient the people who live there are.

There are also people fighting wars with astoundingly more gruesome weapons than we used to have. At least when someone killed you with a sword, they’d have to be there, watching you die. Now people kill like a video game, with a controller and a screen.

All animals have an amazing ability to just keep pushing through, even when the situation is dire. Some do it better than others, but humans have got to be near the top.

Thanks for your answer! I was afraid I had posed the question wrong somehow but this is exactly what I was getting at.

We’d have less tolerance to suffering. But we’re also way healthier so our bodies would be stronger and faster.

Physically, most of us are way weaker and in worse physical shape. (Look at old time photos for far people, or sideshow people labelled as “world’s fattest man” who would not raise an eyebrow lumbering through walmart these days.) I wonder how the balance of more manual work vs our sedentary and fatty lifestyles would play out.

I also think folks were more ready to die or get hurt as that’s just how things happened, so probably more willing to be beaten as part of a strike etc.

Maybe not… nutrition and general health care are a lot better these days, as is education and general access to information so if you took say, a 40-year old from 1875 and introduced them to a 40-year old from 2025, they might see someone who’s bigger than them, has perfect teeth, looks half their age, and has a pretty broad general knowledge about all sorts of things they’d know nothing about.

A bit like if a 40-year old from today met someone from the year 2175 who looked about 20, was insanely fit and a foot taller than them and could casually describe how the cure for cancer, AGI, quantum computers and fusion power worked. Could be pretty intimidating!

In a lot of ways, our current way of living has made us more resilient. Malnoutrition, frequent serious diseases and a high amount of environmental and food-borne poisons (soot, heavy metals, the snake oil that often passed as “medicine” back then) don’t make people stronger, they make them weaker. Our civilization diseases like obesity and allergies are their own issue, but they still beat dying from syphilis or influenza at age 30.

As far as propaganda goes, they had plenty of propaganda as well - it might have been cruder than today, but they also had less access to dissenting voices.

The health trend is definitely pointing downward in places like the USA, though. Let’s hope most of Europe can avoid the worst of that …

Not really, because what they did in hard physical labour we do in hard mental labour. And both types of hard labour exist at the same time nowadays anyway.

What? Soft? Do you think they would mock us for having industrialised society with food and medicines and public schools and well educated people and jobs that don’t break your body at the age of 35? Why would they do that? Would you look into the future and mock them for having a cure for cancer and HIV and Alzheimer’s and better health and foods and even more comfortable living and transport and jobs and entertainment?

Your question made me think about comedian Ryan Hamilton’s bit about the New Yorker visiting rural Idaho and wandering off to get gluten free cupcakes never to be seen again.

We for sure have it easier today.

Strong men create good times, good times create weak men, weak men create bad times, bad times create strong men.

I’m afraid we’re accumulating genetic defects and weaknesses because we’re not allowing them to be weeded out anymore.