There's nostalgia meaning a belief in some sort of golden period in the past, when everything was better than nowadays - people were kinder, more reliable, more efficient, more honest etc etc. You would actively like to go back to that period and leave all the deficiencies of the present day behind.
Then there's nostalgia meaning the belief that standards used to be higher, people took more of a pride in what they did, whereas now the bare minimum will do and sloppiness and mediocrity are rampant. Journalism has degenerated into tittle-tattle, bad grammar goes uncorrected, letters from businesses make no sense, and so on.
Well, I've never believed in a golden period. Whatever years you look at, there are plenty of failings along with the benefits. In the 1960s for example, often seen as a glorious decade, yes, you had high salaries, cheap housing and free university tuition, but you also had homophobia, much more racism, and until 1967 abortion was illegal.
But the problems of previous eras tend to be conveniently forgotten while the problems of the present are all too evident and emphasised day after day by the media, often blown up out of all proportion.
As for slipping standards, well, they are and they aren't. Yes, standards of some things like letter-writing, journalism and degree courses may have declined, but what about the coronavirus vaccines, or complex medical treatment, or computer software, or the increasing reliability of cars? No diminishing standards there.
Personally I've no desire to turn the clock back. I think I'll stay right here with the internet and all its little miracles. So thanks but no thanks.
I agree, the ‘good old days’ are overrated. I think most people, myself included, just look back fondly on our youth, when life was easier due to less responsibilities.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Now I'm retired I have fewer responsibilities yet again. I certainly wouldn't want to go back to the time when we were paying off a huge mortgage and really having to watch the pennies.
DeleteI just wish I could wipe out the Thatcher/Blair period which made naked greed 'acceptable'.
ReplyDeleteFly: That was a truly disheartening period. And naked greed is now normal at the top levels of society. But I wouldn't mind a bit of naked greed by NHS staff, whose pay has been dropping in real terms for the last decade.
DeleteI’ve never wanted to be younger than I am or to go back in time. Make the most of the present, do the best you can with what you have left.
ReplyDeleteJean: Indeed, make the most of the present, which has plenty of good things on offer.
DeleteRight now is always the best time to be alive whenever right now happens to be.
ReplyDeleteLinda: Well, right now is a good time for us oldies to be alive, but youngsters struggling to buy a home and have kids might not agree.
DeleteWe struggled to buy a home and have kids but we still thought it was a good time to buy a home and even though I miscarried one of the planned kids.
DeleteLinda: Houses were fairly affordable when I was growing up, so yes, it was a good time to buy a home. I'm sorry to hear about your miscarriage. My sister also had a miscarriage and then had a baby girl.
DeleteEvery era has its good and bad, but the lack of respect for authority makes me angry, and Thatcher's legacey of greed is shameful. I agree with Bijoux about looking back fondly on our youth, when life was easier due to less responsibilities.
ReplyDeletePolly: I agree about the lack of respect for authority. The constant physical attacks on health workers, paramedics, police officers and the like are deplorable. Ditto all the opposition to the virus restrictions in the name of "freedom".
DeleteI'll stay right where I am right now but if I had to go back to a time in my past it would be the 80's. Just for the music alone. lol
ReplyDeleteMary: But you don't need to go back. It's all available on youtube and albums! And you'd have to put up with all the eighties downsides!
DeleteI am in agreement with you Nick. The present is as as good as the past with all the give and take there is with life. Frankly, I am pleased with how things have gone for me in the long run. I would like the perks of being younger, eh?
ReplyDeleteIn reading the comments, I did not not Thatcher was in to greed yet it makes perfect sense. Reagan who was her good friend ushered in some dismal business practices which have hurt the middle class in the United States.
Ann: Yes, being physically younger would be an advantage.
DeleteThatcher is also famous for saying "there's no such thing as society". In other words, rampant individualism and the survival of the fittest/greediest.
The fifties and the sixties denigrated everything not male and white. We are only coming around, and can never go back.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: Indeed, and the male/white power-base is still well entrenched despite all the ongoing resistance. What's needed is a total change in the way boys are brought up and the values they're taught.
DeleteI think there are more than two kinds of nostalgia - there is also personal nostalgia - and maybe that's looked at through rose tinted specs as well. Maybe I am getting nostalgia muddled with sentimentality? Anyhow, I miss people and places that I have known.
ReplyDeleteSx
Ms Scarlet: Personal nostalgia - "missing what has been lost". It sounds a bit like grief. I guess I experience that to some extent. I miss places I've been like Australia and New Zealand. People not so much, I just move on.
DeleteIt depends on what you're looking for in life. Golden past can be different for everyone of us . It's a personal choice, if you complain about a high mortgage it's because you decided to buy a property. And you seem to be an optimist concerning homophobia and racism today, I'm not.
ReplyDeleteLou: I wasn't exactly complaining about the mortgage, I was just saying it was a big responsibility that I'm now free from. Yes, there's still plenty of homophobia and racism (and sexism) but I think homosexuality is much more acceptable today than when I was growing up. There's even single-sex marriage. I think racism is less acceptable than it was, though it's still very entrenched in the police in particular. A non-racist society is still a long long way off.
DeleteThanks but no thanks for me too.
ReplyDeleteRamana: You seem to be very contented with your current lifestyle and with no wish to retreat to any earlier time. A laudable attitude!
DeleteMy only nostalgia/sentimentality is more an occasional yearning for what could have been with a "normal" two-parent family instead of divorce before I can remember and the absence of both of them for much/most of my childhood. Somehow, mostly because of my grandparents, I guess, my outlook and values ended up being different than most white males born in the early 50s.
ReplyDeleteMike: I can't imagine what it's like to have parents who absent themselves from the job of child-rearing. It's such a blatant shirking of responsibility.
DeleteI never understand all these posts about golden childhoods and mum and dad whatevering romantically and sprinkling love in the kitchen 24/7.
ReplyDeleteToday is fantastic even though everyone bemoans the lack of "cursive writing". WTF? nobody needs it anymore. Hello texting.
Geezering about everything drives me nuts.
XO
WWW
www: I like the word "geezering". Yes, people bemoan the loss of such strange and trivial things. Like shop assistants who no longer call you sir or madam. Seriously? Who cares?
DeleteI think you're right that some standards slip and some improve. I'm not usually very nostalgic, but I do miss pre-COVID life.
ReplyDeleteDanielle: I also miss pre-COVID life. This constant sense of insecurity and having to take elaborate precautions day after day is very dispiriting.
DeletePerhaps some people judge an era based on what their own personal life was like even though most of the rest of the people were having a miserable time. As you say, there are positive aspects and negative ones for most given time periods. My nostalgia is primarily related to people who have been in my life, activities and events with them. I think our culture has become courser that what I recall from years ago, or was I more naive then and didn't recognize what I subsequently perceived?
ReplyDeleteOops.....coarser than what I recall, not courser.
DeleteJoared: True, you see a particular era through your own personal lens, and it's tempting to idealise what for other people was a miserable time. And yes, I think our culture (both UK and US) has become coarser. There's so much anger and hatred and cruelty everywhere you look. Social media has a lot to answer for.
DeleteYes, I agree completely. I wouldn't go back in time for anything. The only thing I wish we cold undo is the damage we've done to the environment. I would have loved to have seen the world when it was more unspoiled.
ReplyDeleteAgent: I would also love to have seen the world before it was so hopelessly spoiled. Personally, I think the big culprit is the rocketing world population and the consequent rocketing consumption and degradation of natural resources.
Delete