Imagine that you fell into a time rift. Which direction of movement do you prefer: to the past or to the future? This question haunts me for a long time. For myself, I answered it like this: it all depends on the "range" of the hit. For example, in the past, I would risk going no further than the beginning of the last century. At most, I would agree to look at the last years of the 19th century. And what, everything was not so bad there. Electricity was invented, steamboats sail the world's oceans, and steam locomotives briskly run on cast-iron rails from point A to point B. At first, it would be difficult to get used to the lack of Internet, wireless communication and dim Edison bulbs instead of the bright lamps of the present time. And then nothing, I would have mastered.
The second unpleasant moment of the transfer to the past would be the difference in the perception of the world. But it is also possible to survive. I think that a person from the 21st century at the beginning of the last century would not be as uncomfortable as if he found himself in the Middle Ages. Imagine that you "failed" during the time of Ivan the Terrible, or during the Napoleon attack on Russia. In that case, things would have been much worse. You don't even have to talk about the difference in mentality, so everything is clear. What about living conditions? If you somehow still live without a mobile phone, then without steam heating and a hot shower, a modern person will not last long: he will quickly become covered with deprivations, lice and ask for home. After such a trip, the seasonal shutdown of hot water will seem like innocent child's play.
Yes, I still want to return to the difference in attitude to life. In the Middle Ages, no matter what country you are brought to, the chances of dying from scabies will be much less than from an executioner's noose or a robber's knife. Imagine how original you will look with bare ankles protruding from sneakers, surrounded by harsh peisan with pitchforks. And the arrogant nobles are unlikely to appreciate the hipster outfit. You will be quickly sent to prison, where they will not stand on ceremony for a long time: first, they will whip you with whips, then they will anathematize and send you to the scaffold. Or vice versa? However, the sequence of actions will no longer matter to you. This isn't King Arthur's Yankee!
Add the language barrier to other things being equal. Yes, yes, do you think you will be able to understand the speech of ancestors who lived 300 years ago? Alas, during this time the language has undergone global changes, and you cannot understand a word that will not add points in the eyes of harsh punishers.
More or less civilized, in my humble opinion, humanity has become closer to our era. It was no coincidence that I said about the junction of the centuries - the nineteenth and twentieth. At least, there will be fewer language problems, and the appearance will not be so carefully scrutinized and nitpicked about trifles. Of course, I do not advise you to “shine” your smartphone or defiantly light up a vaper, but in general you can somehow adapt to the everyday life of those years.
It is worse if you are carried into a specific period of the 20th century. And, again, it doesn't matter whether to Russia or to quiet Europe. Personally, I don't want to get into the period of War Communism or the dictatorship of the proletariat. It's like being in France in the glorious era of the French Revolution!
The thirties are not suitable for temporary immigration. The plague virus is actively spreading around the world at this time. The same one that was allegorically described in the novel of the same name by A. Camus. The one that, he said, can live for years in the curls of furniture, waiting in the wings. The Roaring Thirties. Times of great dictators, global crises and economic booms. Chur, as they say in such cases! It’s better to let the dinosaurs throw the hard one, they will immediately eat it, they will not scoff for a long time.
Well, and further along the historical milestones: World War II, the flourishing of repression in the Soviets, the GULAG. No I do not want to! I don't even know what kind of rags to pretend to be, so that they don't take it away. And here you don't even have to wave the latest Samsung: one appearance will be enough to become an "enemy of the people." It is unlikely that such a pampered creature like me will last long on felling or building the Moscow-Volga canal.
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What time period from the last century to choose? Perhaps none will suit me. After the war, Europe is in ruins, the Soviets triumph and continue to build a bright future. Everywhere it is hungry, cold, the closets with the entrance to Narnia went for firewood. The country has another wave of repression and the fight against cosmopolitanism. Further - more: the cold war, the arms race, Afghanistan, perestroika and empty store shelves. Surely, I missed something, but that's not the point. No, I will not return to the twentieth century, to the days of my dull childhood and hungry youth. If only for one purpose - to convey to yourself the then greetings from the past. Pat on the shoulder, cheer up. Tell what will still happen: phones without disks, flat TVs, and laptops. The only question is whether I, living in the past, believe myself from the future. Hardly:sometimes there is such a gap between decades that even centuries seem to be a moment.
That is why I would have chosen precisely the junction of eras: great and terrible shocks are only in the future. In the present, people have hopes, dreams, discoveries. A breakthrough has already been made in the scientific and technical field, but the hydrogen bomb has not yet been invented and the atom has not split. There are also horse-drawn carriages and carriages running along the city streets, but more and more cars appear. Scientists have opened Egyptian tombs, and have ceased to fear persecution from the church. Women boldly refuse corsets, cut their hair short, smoke cigarettes, and fight for their rights. Men look after their appearance, but they still remain men. The world is in a state of harmony that will soon be broken. Eh, humanity should stop at this stage, slow down, look around, think! Now, if I happened to get there, I would definitely try to do something! Tell,what will turn into an irrepressible thirst for knowledge, discoveries and transformations.
Warn, and immediately go home, in due time. I wonder what it would have become, otherwise suddenly I will only make it worse …