Dangerous Nostalgia

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=Octobers-Rust Jan 11, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

I see people mentioning about how society was so much better X amount of years ago, and that's their ideal. However, through either ignorance or rose coloured glasses, they seem to forget the negatives of their 'ideal' period. But even 60 years ago, there are so many things that we now take for granted that weren't around for example:

-death tolls on roads were in quadruple digits whereas now, they are in double/triple digits, even though there is a larger population and more people drive.

-lead paint and asbestos was legal

-marital rape was legal.

-people thought that stealing children off of mothers was okay (IE, the stolen generation)

Now, my question is, are people who want life to be like it was 50 or more years ago actually okay with things like this? Or do they just take things for granted, and only have a romanticized view of that period of time?

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~samuraishoujo95 Jan 16, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

Fact is, as human beings it is in our nature to never be fully satisfied with any situation.
It's kinda like being surrounded by people you don't like and you wanting a change. Then when you get the change you want and are surrounded by different people whom you still don't like you think "Oh the people before this were wayy better."

now here's my question: why name this thread "dangerous nostalgia"?

~Emeowrald Jan 12, 2013

I think that people who haven't lived during those time periods have a romanticized view because the only way they've seen these time periods is via television and movies from that era. 60 years ago movies and television made everything seem positive and innocent so things such the stolen generation and marital rape were just treated as nonexistent. I think this was probably due to censorship and something called the Hays Code when it came to television and radio at the time.
If you actually did live in that era I think weather or not you would want to return to such a time period may not be because of the time period in itself, but the idea of wanting to return to a simpler period of one's own life when one was younger and had a fresher perspective on things, and also because maybe some of the bad things you stated may not have been experienced by them. This maybe especially the case if one had a positive time back then. If one did not have a positive time than they would not want to return to such a time period.

In short if they associate the time period with a positive time in their lives than they would want to go back, if not than chances are they wouldn't.

~The-Thunder-Fox Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist Artist

Everything remains as it never was, I guess...

~Bullet-Magnet Jan 12, 2013

They way it has been consistently for centuries is this: things are always getting better, people are always saying it's getting worse.

=Svataben Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

I'm thinking, a lot of them are white men, living wealthy secure lives, thinking that none of the badness will ever happen to them.
Also denial. It's no fun admitting that your father was abusive towards your mother, and that she was miserable all the time. No fun at all. (And to those less smart than MD: abuse is more than just marital rape. He'll, I think society in the fifties and earlier was abusive towards women.)

=Octobers-Rust Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

Just look at some of the replies I've gotten to this thread

Feminism is bad unless we are invading countries!!!

~Geistjager Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist

Yeah... The bad old days of openly tolerated totalitarianism, racism, homophobia, religious intolerence, infant mortality, nuclear weapons...

Oh wait...

I'll get my coat.

*Cynical-Nerd Jan 12, 2013

Nostalgia is the word I hate the most because of things like this.

*VictorianExcentric Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

I agree with this post on a general basis, nostalgia for another time is indeed often an illusion. The good old time were not that good.

Albeit, intriguingly to me, you are arguing things are not different over time, but different over geography. I think things were neither different over time or geography. And individuals are pretty much the same everywhere you go.

VE.

=Octobers-Rust Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist Photographer

Yes, those things are different over time. Interraccial marriage is hardly illegal in America anymore, is it?

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