There are some distinct phases that almost everyone goes through. Childhood is marked by curiosity and learning. Youth is marked by energy, earnestness and confidence. Middle age is when you start losing the brand new life smell and relax into the same old same old. As you start getting even older, nostalgia starts to set in.
Why do we get nostalgic? My guess is that by then you have too much to reminisce, you have lost your youth for good, and facing the pain of old age and void of nothingness ahead. Memories are sweet. And more often than not you end up remembering them to be sweeter. You are also jealous of the young people, just for having what they have - youth. That's when you start saying the good old days were really good, and these undeserving yuppies have got it too easy. In short their grapes are sour, mine were sweeter.
Recognizing nostalgic statements is easy. Any sentence that contains the word "Nowadays" is almost certainly nostalgic. Especially when it talks about how things are bad nowadays. Almost no one under 20 uses the word “nowadays”. They are too excited by the new things that are happening today, and about to happen tomorrow. They hardly have time to talk about the yesterdays. Also any derogatory or even worried statement about the "new generation" or "kids these days" has a stamp of nostalgia on it. Any one talking about "family values" is talking through a nostalgic microphone. If you want to keep your youth, you should pay attention to your mind as well as your body. If you find yourself using these phrases a lot often than you used to try to think of the good old days, when you didn't do it as often.
Nostalgia is not a new phenomenon. It's been there for a few centuries definitely - because we have recorded statements. But I have a feeling it transcends civilization and cultures. I am sure an Egyptian who grew up to a ripe age of 50 reminisced about how the newer pyramids are just plain blocks of stones and theirs were works of art. It is difficult to say about nostalgia in prehistoric period, because most people probably died before turning soft and nostalgic. Those were the days, man!
Nostalgia rears its ugly head at many intellectual junctures. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that those considered intellectuals are already in the nostalgic phase. Anthropologists are especially prone to it (of course, not all). They call bones of people who died of unnatural cause as a proof of the society following "ritualistic killing" somehow making it sound better than murder. They also sometimes call graffiti as "sex symbolism". Nomadic tribes that killed their young because the food was scarce are called "in tune with the natural rhythm of plenty and scarcity". The eulogistic wording for what were really savage ways of our ancestors shouts of nostalgia. We are afraid of denigrating non-western, and ancient civilizations, even though the so called "civilizations" and communities had institutionalized oppression, slavery and murder. Historians too fall into this trap sometimes - calling certain periods as "golden age".
Nostalgic thinking combined with media is especially potent combination when there is a real problem to talk about. These experts come out of the woodwork to conclude that things are taking turn for the worse. The media loves them, they keep the reader/viewer glued - nobody turns the page or touches that dial.
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2 comments:
Nowadays, nostalgia is really becoming a nasty habit. It used to be a harmless thing not too long ago blah blah :-) Boy am I becoming a fan of the meta!
On a serious note, I agree that nostalgia mixed with media is a deadly combination. But I think you are alluding to two different phenomena under the general term 'nostalgia', and while both of them are undesirable characteristics on their own, they should be treated separately. The two flavors are
1. Sweet memories of the past combined with lack of unpleasant memories of the same past creating a false impression that the past was really better than the present. This type of nostalgia is strictly related to actual *memories* - things that you've experienced in the past, and hence does not go beyond your own birth. Classic symptom is to conclude that world was a better place about 20-30 years ago.
2. Extrapolating #1 (in combination with a number of other things) to generally conclude that the world is on a downward trend. This is what you're referring to when you point out the fallacy of the 'golden age'. This is slightly different from the nostalgia #1, because in this case, the past isn't something you've personally experienced, and can go way beyond your own birth. Classic symptom is to conclude that world was a better place 'n' years ago, where n can really be as large as a million.
This might seem like splitting hairs but I think the disticntion is important. #1, like drinking, is harmless (and, arguably, even beneficial) in moderation, but deadly as soon as you cross the threshold. On the other hand, #2 is *always* deadly.
Yes, I missed the selective memory part. When you look back, you tend to remember everything in a brighter light. I went to the basic course in mountaineering - I hated a large part of it, because it was painful, and I was not very good at it. I did not like the military style learning. Yet, in a few months, I was fondly remembering the wonderful couple weeks that I spent in Himalayas.
I think forces other than nostalgia are working too. For example, the tendancy to revere your ancestors is there amongst all cultures. The western intelligencia actually goes out of the way to revere every other culture's ancestors...
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