The fact is that the past is always a mixture of good and bad, and it's easy to glamorise the positive aspects while overlooking the bad.
Such as the 1960s. Yes, it was a time of amazing creativity and cultural delights, but it wasn't much fun for victimised gays, or women who were expected to be in favour of free love - which in practice meant sexual availability.
But you could say I'm nostalgic not for a particular time period but for everyday things that seem preferable to their present equivalent.
Like making purchases. They used to be a simple matter of handing over cash or a cheque. But nowadays you need all sorts of technology like QR codes and apps, not to mention passwords and pin numbers.
Like train travel. I used to buy a ticket at a booking office and it would take me from A to B. But today prices vary depending on what time of day you travel, which train company you use and whether you book at the station or online.
I could imagine being nostalgic for some earlier time if my present life was utterly miserable and disastrous, but thankfully it isn't anything of the sort. Even when my life seemed a bit bleak and empty in my late twenties I never wished I could go back to an earlier period. I just assumed things would get better.
But it would be quite fun to pay a flying visit to the days of Beatlemania and bell bottoms and Black Forest Gateaux.
I find little to be nostalgic about apart from some with dear friends now passed. Far too many of those I'm afraid. I'm not one of those geezers who complains about technology however, I see how it has benefited the mundane in so many ways. But perhaps I am nostalgic for ephemeral peace.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
www: Technology has been very beneficial in many ways, but it has also made life more complicated, invited scammers, and given trolls huge audiences.
DeleteI would like to time warp the politicians of my youth to the current day.....there were some rogues among them - Ernest Marples, Reginald Maudling - but on the whole they saw their job as being to better society, not to sell off its assets to cronies.
ReplyDeleteHelen: I agree that the old-style Tories like Marples and Maudling and Macmillan were committed to public services and giving everyone better lives.
DeleteI could enjoy a flying visit like that. I don't long for the good old days, some of the youthful fun, maybe.
ReplyDeleteSandra: It would be eye-opening, wouldn't it?
DeleteNick , I'm.not nostalgic . The only moment
ReplyDeleteI love to remember is when Saïd gave birth to our child in a little village in Morocco , where he worked and we lived at that time. A very peaceful magic night.I think being nostalgic stop a lot of people to live the moment and present life. I hear many people of our generation dream of the so called "good old times" . It makes me laugh, it's the tendancy (??) to embellish the past and forget the difficulties.
Hannah
Hannah: Yes, what good old times? When women belonged in the kitchen and men expected to be waited on hand and foot?
Deletethecontemplativecat here. So many things from the past were splendid. Lady's fashions were primo. Cars were amazing. Music was excellent. Subservience was part of our life back then.
ReplyDeleteContemplative Cat: Indeed, high-quality products unfortunately go hand in hand with a subservient society.
DeleteEver since my husband passed away I look back at some of our pictures and miss the past. But I think that's normal.
ReplyDeleteMary: That's very normal. I don't think missing a loved one counts as nostalgia. It's just the sense of something (or someone) not being there any more.
DeleteWell Nick. I can't say I am nostalgic as I was born in the late 1980s. But I do think life was better in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Fashion and style was much better than today. People seemed to actually care about what they wore when they went out. I love that men wore pressed shirts, pressed khakis, polished shoes, neatly trimmed and combed hair out in public. Women in dresses usually or then in suits, pumps, skin tone tights, nicely done hair and "limited" make up in public. I hate the lazy look of a man in a suit without a tie. Also, no obesity junk-food problem then.
ReplyDeleteI also absolutely love that 1970s vintage car look. (E.g. see here = https://www.supercars.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1095341-1536.jpg ). Look at today's Tesla by comparison. Its clinically ugly, as all cars are today. I think air travel was so much better then and it had some glamour and excitement about it. Today, I hate going up to the airport and having to do the "self check-in". It really destroys the excitement of showing my passport and getting an actual physical boarding pass in my hand. I have lovely memories of being in queues to go on holidays with my family and getting my ticket.
I think what has happened is that we have become a risk-adverse society. We are scared of all and any types of risks, so we try to cushion everything. Until the 80s and 90s, everyone smoked and they smoked everywhere. Now, cigarettes are being actually banned. It's not that I like cigarettes or smoking particularly; but I think it's symptomatic of a deeper mollycoddling of society. I think Tesla design is a classic symptom of this risk-adverse mentality. All cars today look like they are designed for kids in a kindergadtten. We are moving away from things which may pose some kind of risk – which may be more "safe", but it's also numbing.
People say how amazing technology is. Which, in many respects, is true. But honestly, I doubt how happy it is making us. Today, people stare at a screen 24/7. Social media has wrought non-stop anxieties in the population today. Technology may be convenient but they're slowly erroding the private sphere and the links of people to their communities. Cinemas are on their knees today because of Netflix and online shows, people order groceries and restaurant food online. They date online, they speak online, they study online ... so much convenience that we may look back at older times and think that we were actually happier than today. When I was v. young, we only had 5 channels. We watched them as a family and we all knew what was on. Today, we have thousands of TV channels and shows and they all rubbish.
I love the fact that a young person with a normal everyday job (like a builder) could buy a home to raise a family in 50/60/70s. My grandfather did it on a pittance when he immigrated to England. Financially, I think people then had a more positive outlook on life and a feeling of overcoming challenges of life. Things have changed for the worse economically and environmentally these days. It was much easier to raise a family on one income, as my grandad did. University was free and schools and colleges were quite good with degrees that meant something.
No time is perfect – including the reasons you cite: the tone around gay rights and stuff like that, polio was serious, the underlying problems around Vietnam, domestic violence and women for sure … but, I think, for me, with a sense of perspective they were actually better times.
Heaven a young but mentally already past time OLD student. Your arguments make me shiver.
DeleteHannah
Liam: Wow, you certainly have an extreme case of "it was all much better in the old days". I agree with some of the things you mention like flying being no fun any more and phone addiction and declining salaries but I disagree about other things. I've no problem with more casual dressing or a ban on smoking or health-and-safety measures. It's a serious downward trend that couples both have to work - sometimes doing two or three jobs - simply to pay the mortgage and keep a roof over their heads.
DeleteHannah: See my reply to Liam!
DeleteNick I was gobsmacked by such a long list for better things in the past. Lack of personal experience in my eyes, but of course no problem if he wants to wear a tie . Sorry I must laugh.
DeleteHannah
Hannah: Different strokes for different folks, as they say.
DeleteNick, I agree . Wish you a nice week.
DeleteHannah
Hello Nick and Hannah,
DeleteYes, I am partial to a tie ... and have a collection of snazzy ties. :)
I don't know if we can say whether some age was definitively better or not; but I do have a feeling that they had some pretty good things going for them then. I recognise your points nick about race and social tones improving though and that's a big change in a short time. Maybe if I went back in time, I may decide you guys were right and return to 2024!!
Liam: Every age is a mixture of good and bad. One thing I appreciated in the early 1970s was free higher education. Not just free tuition but a maintenance grant and a travel grant! Today's undergrads are weighed down by absurd levels of debt.
DeleteThe 1960s in Minneapolis meant race riots. I'm certainly not nostalgic for that.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: People tend to forget about riots when they talk about the past. Who wants to be in the middle of a riot?
DeleteI miss a lot of things from the 80’s, but mostly the freedom of youth. And when flying was actually fun and exciting rather than a pain in the ass!
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Too true, flying used to be fun but now it's a nightmare of unexpected hitches and charges - and awful food.
DeleteI have never cared to look back. Not much desire to relive my youth.
ReplyDeletePaula: Clearly your youth wasn't much fun at all!
DeleteIt was.
DeleteI miss the friends I had back then. All gone.
ReplyDeleteJoanne: That's sad. But you do have new friends to keep you company.
DeleteTotally agree that most things were better made years ago and I still have a few of them, I even liked a lot of the music of decades ago, especially the 40s and 50s and the films were way better as well.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice: Some things were better made certainly. We have a TV that's 24 years old, a microwave that's about 40 years old, and an iron that's lasted a couple of decades at least.
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