Nostalgia: The Good and the Bad

I don't know if this is the right board for such a topic,but I'll leave it to the mods to decide.

Face it,we all yearn for a simplier time,wheter it be from our childhood or a time period that seems intersting from before we were born. But we live in the present,and there's nothing we can do about it.

The question I ask is,why? Is it a defense mechanism against a world going crazy and out of control,or something else? Is it normal to want the things you had growing up? I collect the new Masters of the Universe figures becuase I had the old figures growing up and have fond memories of them,and they are cool toys regardless.

About living in other times,I often think the fifties would've been fun to live through,great music,great cars,girls looked great without looking slutty,but then again,people had their lives ruined in a senator's witchhunt,blacks and other minorities weren't treated well,and other stuff I could name. Maybe that Greek philospher was right about living in interesting times.

 

People, since the dawn of time, have thought that the time before whenever they were living was a return to "a better time".

Older folks in the 20s thought the same thing that older folks today think about the younger generation--that they're immoral and have skewed values. Reasons were different though--in the 20s, women were dressing as "flappers", smoking cigarettes, and young people were listening to jazz, which was considered very sexually provocative music.

Now we wear thongs and listen to Eminem, and the older generation just wishes we would listen to jazz. (On a side note: I am a Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck Quartet fan. )

There does seem to be an extreme right-wing wish to return to the 50s because in the 50s, there were fewer divorces and out-of-wedlock births--it seemed to be a more moral time. But adults in the 50s complained about teenagers, about how horrible it was that they were listening to Elvis Presley, who "gyrated" on stage, swinging his hips in a "sexual" manner.

I personally think that it bothers adults when the next generation grows into their sexuality--and maybe, who could blame them, because it means they're getting older.

However, I do think that a trend towards nostalgia is also a trend towards ignoring the negative about the past--for example, in the 20s, the astronomical overspending and the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots"; and in the 50s, the extreme racism and sexism which was condoned by a large portion of society.