Do you think a yearning for the past has to do with hindsight and a better understanding of how the world worked then? As opposed to now when a lot of us (maybe just me) feel inundated with information, correlation and not causation, and sensationalism so that it feels like chaos? Do I need to speak with my therapist?
I think nostalgia may well be a reflection of the fear of change and the unknown. Where a population is faced with too much information or the prospect of change, the mind looks for comfort and where better than where and what we know through a large pair of rose tinted glasses. As you say, this is where DC played the tactical master stroke of take back control.
I spoke to my grandparents at the time of the Brexit vote and asked them their thoughts. I was fully expecting staunch leave responses, but no, they wanted to remain. Why? Well as my Grandad said "why would you want to go back to a past that didn't work? A collective ego is so much stronger than an individual one." My other grandparents also generally agreed and could see how much the present was better than the past, even if some of it went over their head, but that happens to us all. My grandad also said never worry about things you can't control (very true).
The book looks great and will be added to the to be read list.
Whenever I think pop culture and nostalgia, I think of the film Pleasantville. Toby McGuire's character obsesseses over a fictional 1950s television show where everything is seemingly perfect. The character and his sister get sucked into this television world, and he figures out that things in this world, like the 1950s were far from perfect. If you've never seen it, I recommend it.
Another thought that crossed my mind is nostalgia one-upmanship. That's (hopefully) just a stupid American thing.
You bring up some thing from your youth that was kinda fun, then someone in the age group ahead of you pulls the "oh, well back in MY day WE had blabba blabba blaa....".
Nostalgia is a seductive vice and the older you get the worse the desire gets. Additionally, most folks have very short memories and haven't read much history...a deadly combination. Fortunately for us we've got you to give us grim reminders of the way it was. Oh, BTW after my recent overnight stay in a Portuguese castelo I realized that I would have lasted about 5 minutes running up those ramps and towers with a sword and armor in the Iberian heat, but of course I'm sure it was romantic then, right?
I fully agree with Dan that America is infected with nostalgia, and he makes a crucial point by defining it as “disappointment with the present, combined with a nagging fear of loss.” That sense of impending loss is what is driving some of my countrymen (and women) barking mad. They feel a loss of power is coming for the White, Christian majority that has run the place since Colonial days. As more people become disaffected with religion, and as ethnic minorities grow to soon become a collective majority, White Christians fear a loss of power and influence. (FWIW, I’m a White former Roman Catholic baby-boomer who is perfectly fine with the recent demographic changes.)
The “originalists,” who contend that only the literal text of the US Constitution is relevant hide a deeply conservative world view under the veneer of nostalgia and reverence for the sainted Founding Fathers. They don’t like things like abortion, birth control, marriage equality, inter-racial marriage, Social Security, government-sponsored health care, and any number of other things most Americans value, but which are not expressly provided for in the Constitution. They now have enough like-minded justices to begin chipping away at what were once considered rights. Once that happens, I’ll have some VERY good reasons to be nostalgic for the past.
Wow, that’s very deep for a Monday! But you always draw us in with a parable like comparison between the ‘old’ days and a future we are all a bit nervous about! Ta again!
Well this is absolutely delicious. Perfect way to begin an otherwise mundane Tuesday. But I need to ruminate on the big questions and ideas you're tilling up here... be back shortly. ❤️
An interest in history is thankfully not identical to nostalgia. The former is (among others) a way to understand the present, the latter is (also among others) discontentment with or bewilderment by the present, helped along by selective memory.
Personally, nudged by this excellent post, I had a deep(ish) think what part of my own past I was hankering for, but I couldn't think of anything. Not that it matters, the good memories were never that good in reality anyway 😁
Nor can I think of a more distant past I would want to resuscitate. What time was entirely good and wonderful for everybody? Nostalgia usually overlooks that the so-called great times were often not so sublime for large groups of people.
There have been many times that I've felt I came in too late. Then other times I've been right in the middle and I guess I didn't appreciate it enough 😉. I would have loved to grow up in a rural area with horses and the farm thing like my mom, so I did it for my kids and they aren't remotely interested. Then I grew up in the 70s / 80s which the kids think is amazing and I didn't think anything of it. They get all excited looking through my high school stuff.
So I guess I'm nostalgic for the things I didn't have.
I would suppose the potential harm or veneration of things past would depend on what and when. In the states here for example - yearning for the days of antebellum south would include the subjugation of Africans. Or those crazies at Chancellorsville with their Home Depot garden torches 🙄 rallied around the statue of Robert E Lee.
Unfortunately nostalgia in this day and age seems to be closely linked with a narrative involving loss as in something was taken away. That’s the big shiny red button driving the anger and angst we see here and in other nationalistic movements. I dare say it’s possibly what’s driving Putin - nostalgic for the glory days of the USSR.
I personally am nostalgic for the age of discovery as in space discovery. 🤷♀️
This might be my favourite post so far. The idea of nostalgia is so powerful and dissociative that it almost becomes something to be feared, I think. When there is an emotional state that takes you so firmly away from the present then it is worth dwelling on, and when you do that, you start to realise that if the golden days are indeed behind us as nostalgia suggests, then at some point we lived through them and never even knew. And I'm fairly certain there's something like that in a sitcom of some kind now that I'm writing it out, but hey ho. Hope you have a nice week :)
I like learning about the past because it helps me better understand what my ancestors lives were like. I just took a course about the Scottish Prisoners of War 1650. They found skeletons at Durham and the course dealt with their findings after studying the remains . I’ve been researching other ancestors who happen to be in the Rous Roll! Very fascinating to see what my ancestors looked like!!!
You really made me happy today with your post. Suddenly, I remembered some of Peter Burke's theories about the few works that have been done around the history of emotions.A lot of work to do.
There is a book at home that is one of my daughters' favorites, and it defines nostalgia : ' If you miss the times when you were not alone, then you experience nostalgia. The absence of what we love saddens us, and our hearts feel empty. Then it slowly fills up with drops of sorrow. And finally, you become a victim of melancholy'.
Do you think a yearning for the past has to do with hindsight and a better understanding of how the world worked then? As opposed to now when a lot of us (maybe just me) feel inundated with information, correlation and not causation, and sensationalism so that it feels like chaos? Do I need to speak with my therapist?
I think nostalgia may well be a reflection of the fear of change and the unknown. Where a population is faced with too much information or the prospect of change, the mind looks for comfort and where better than where and what we know through a large pair of rose tinted glasses. As you say, this is where DC played the tactical master stroke of take back control.
I spoke to my grandparents at the time of the Brexit vote and asked them their thoughts. I was fully expecting staunch leave responses, but no, they wanted to remain. Why? Well as my Grandad said "why would you want to go back to a past that didn't work? A collective ego is so much stronger than an individual one." My other grandparents also generally agreed and could see how much the present was better than the past, even if some of it went over their head, but that happens to us all. My grandad also said never worry about things you can't control (very true).
The book looks great and will be added to the to be read list.
Thank you
Whenever I think pop culture and nostalgia, I think of the film Pleasantville. Toby McGuire's character obsesseses over a fictional 1950s television show where everything is seemingly perfect. The character and his sister get sucked into this television world, and he figures out that things in this world, like the 1950s were far from perfect. If you've never seen it, I recommend it.
Another thought that crossed my mind is nostalgia one-upmanship. That's (hopefully) just a stupid American thing.
You bring up some thing from your youth that was kinda fun, then someone in the age group ahead of you pulls the "oh, well back in MY day WE had blabba blabba blaa....".
Ok. Didn't know we were in competition.
Nostalgia is a seductive vice and the older you get the worse the desire gets. Additionally, most folks have very short memories and haven't read much history...a deadly combination. Fortunately for us we've got you to give us grim reminders of the way it was. Oh, BTW after my recent overnight stay in a Portuguese castelo I realized that I would have lasted about 5 minutes running up those ramps and towers with a sword and armor in the Iberian heat, but of course I'm sure it was romantic then, right?
I fully agree with Dan that America is infected with nostalgia, and he makes a crucial point by defining it as “disappointment with the present, combined with a nagging fear of loss.” That sense of impending loss is what is driving some of my countrymen (and women) barking mad. They feel a loss of power is coming for the White, Christian majority that has run the place since Colonial days. As more people become disaffected with religion, and as ethnic minorities grow to soon become a collective majority, White Christians fear a loss of power and influence. (FWIW, I’m a White former Roman Catholic baby-boomer who is perfectly fine with the recent demographic changes.)
The “originalists,” who contend that only the literal text of the US Constitution is relevant hide a deeply conservative world view under the veneer of nostalgia and reverence for the sainted Founding Fathers. They don’t like things like abortion, birth control, marriage equality, inter-racial marriage, Social Security, government-sponsored health care, and any number of other things most Americans value, but which are not expressly provided for in the Constitution. They now have enough like-minded justices to begin chipping away at what were once considered rights. Once that happens, I’ll have some VERY good reasons to be nostalgic for the past.
Wow, that’s very deep for a Monday! But you always draw us in with a parable like comparison between the ‘old’ days and a future we are all a bit nervous about! Ta again!
Very brilliant
Well this is absolutely delicious. Perfect way to begin an otherwise mundane Tuesday. But I need to ruminate on the big questions and ideas you're tilling up here... be back shortly. ❤️
An interest in history is thankfully not identical to nostalgia. The former is (among others) a way to understand the present, the latter is (also among others) discontentment with or bewilderment by the present, helped along by selective memory.
Personally, nudged by this excellent post, I had a deep(ish) think what part of my own past I was hankering for, but I couldn't think of anything. Not that it matters, the good memories were never that good in reality anyway 😁
Nor can I think of a more distant past I would want to resuscitate. What time was entirely good and wonderful for everybody? Nostalgia usually overlooks that the so-called great times were often not so sublime for large groups of people.
There have been many times that I've felt I came in too late. Then other times I've been right in the middle and I guess I didn't appreciate it enough 😉. I would have loved to grow up in a rural area with horses and the farm thing like my mom, so I did it for my kids and they aren't remotely interested. Then I grew up in the 70s / 80s which the kids think is amazing and I didn't think anything of it. They get all excited looking through my high school stuff.
So I guess I'm nostalgic for the things I didn't have.
I would suppose the potential harm or veneration of things past would depend on what and when. In the states here for example - yearning for the days of antebellum south would include the subjugation of Africans. Or those crazies at Chancellorsville with their Home Depot garden torches 🙄 rallied around the statue of Robert E Lee.
Unfortunately nostalgia in this day and age seems to be closely linked with a narrative involving loss as in something was taken away. That’s the big shiny red button driving the anger and angst we see here and in other nationalistic movements. I dare say it’s possibly what’s driving Putin - nostalgic for the glory days of the USSR.
I personally am nostalgic for the age of discovery as in space discovery. 🤷♀️
This might be my favourite post so far. The idea of nostalgia is so powerful and dissociative that it almost becomes something to be feared, I think. When there is an emotional state that takes you so firmly away from the present then it is worth dwelling on, and when you do that, you start to realise that if the golden days are indeed behind us as nostalgia suggests, then at some point we lived through them and never even knew. And I'm fairly certain there's something like that in a sitcom of some kind now that I'm writing it out, but hey ho. Hope you have a nice week :)
I like learning about the past because it helps me better understand what my ancestors lives were like. I just took a course about the Scottish Prisoners of War 1650. They found skeletons at Durham and the course dealt with their findings after studying the remains . I’ve been researching other ancestors who happen to be in the Rous Roll! Very fascinating to see what my ancestors looked like!!!
You really made me happy today with your post. Suddenly, I remembered some of Peter Burke's theories about the few works that have been done around the history of emotions.A lot of work to do.
There is a book at home that is one of my daughters' favorites, and it defines nostalgia : ' If you miss the times when you were not alone, then you experience nostalgia. The absence of what we love saddens us, and our hearts feel empty. Then it slowly fills up with drops of sorrow. And finally, you become a victim of melancholy'.