Posted on 06/03/2009 3:53:58 PM PDT by jxb7076
During the recent presidential election we heard the all too familiar suggestion of “returning to the good old days.” Every candidate talked about returning America to a sense of values. I don’t know about you but each time I heard that suggestion I get a little queasy in the stomach accompanied by a little bewilderment, confusion, and absolute disgust!
Whenever I hear the suggestion I often wondered exactly what period in time they want to take us back to! Could it be the days of our slave-holding forefathers? Perhaps they want to take us back to the glorious war that then President Polk suckered the Mexicans into – bless his heart. Then again, perhaps they want to take us back to the Civil War when Christians were giving each other an inhumane and thorough smokehouse bashing. Maybe they want to take us back to the glorious days when Americans were slaughtering Indians, buffaloes, and passenger pigeons - and the Indians were scalping Americans. Perhaps the politicians ideas of a good old day moral America was the gun-toting wild, wild west and the Jesse James era?! I certainly hope it’s not these good old days!
(Excerpt) Read more at hubpages.com ...
I deplore the Blogosphere and bemoan the decline and fall of mainstream newspapers for two reasons: first is the decline in editorial standards. Second is the decline in proofreading.
This article is a classic example of everything I DESPISE about Blogs.
All of that ignores the article’s actual content, which is rubbish.
The Good Old Days are a matter of individual preference. My “good old days” were in the 1960-63 era when I was a teenager. I didn’t give a rat’s behind about segregation, civil rights, Camelot, the Cold War or anything else. We had a blast and the time of our life. Girls, Do-Wop, cruising and hanging out. Then came 1964, I went into the military and the “good old days” were never to be again. I guess in a way you’re right. The Good Old Days are only memories...
The problem is that our political leaders want nostalgia. They want to always go back, if it’s only for one day and not have to face the challenges right now or tomorrow. They’re hoping for the glorious days of the Hollywood black and white movie where the masked man in the white hat, on the white horse always arrived on time to save America at the last possible moment. When this doesn’t happen they start looking for one liner heroes like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, or House – the TV doctor who despite his arrogant, obnoxious approach always saves the patient at the last possible moment. But since none of them were available America settled for Barack Obama - who ran on a platform of change. Yes Sir - when the rest of the world was cringing in terror from an uncertain America Barack stood tall. While on the campaign trail facing our man of a million lies, Barack Obama stood tall on nostalgia disguised by a message which suggests change. Yes, take your changes and you go give the enemies of America hell Barack – that’s what we did! This was the advice from George W. Bush. Advice from the old Captain Stupid to the new ship of fools who think that America will prosper by going back to the “Good Old Days” Nostalgia, that’s what they think we want, a time when the buck stopped somewhere, and you could allegedly still buy something with it. A time when television was in black and white and so was everything else.
Huh?
People go in for nostalgia when they think the world is getting worse. A lot of the effort put into condemning nostalgia would be better used in figuring out whether the world was getting better or worse.
I know people who were scarred by the 60s and 70s. You could accuse them of being too nostalgic for the 50s, but in their day, they had a point: some things definitely were worse in the 1970s than they had been before.
But by the time the 1990s and the new millenium came along things were definitely better than they had been in the 70s or the 50s. It was silly to be bemoaning the 60s two generations later. Today it's questionable whether these are good times just now, so people will start getting nostalgic for the era just ended.
Anyway, the interesting thing about those people I knew, is that they were very hopeful back in the 50s and 60s. They saw the world getting better. It was what happened later that soured them on things.
What garbage. We’re on the brink of economic and nuclear armageddon thanks to the “progress” that politicians promised us.
Clearly, you read Howard Zinn.
Let’s parse nostalgia.
For some people it is the not entirely accurate memory of the times of their youth; but often they are remembering their youth much more than the times.
For other people, it is the again not entirely accurate memory of the times, but forgetting the underlying causes of those times. Such as, “It was great when America pulled together during WWII”, which sort of neglects the WWII part.
For yet other people, nostalgia is complete fantasy. Happy Hippies in the 1960s, drag racing Greasers in the 1950s. Sure maybe there were some people like that somewhere, at least for a little while. But they were not typical.
Finally, there is the good nostalgia that could be called “conservative pragmatism”. Things as, “back in the good old days when America wasn’t in hock up to its eyebrows”, and “It’s a pity that we don’t have Music Television any more.”
That is, pining for things that worked and we liked, but were foolishly discarded for bad reasons. And most importantly, we could have again, if we demanded it. Which is a good reason for nostalgia.
I wasn’t aware that we lost millions of fine young men during the Vietnam War.
No Idiocy alert?
In any case, the "good old days" were the 1950's, when the federal behemoth was small, and distant from the individual's daily life--and we liked it that way.
I have to give it to Bill - those were some decent times. You never miss your water until the well is dry. I think things will slowly improve under the Obama Administration.
Tell us how you really feel. :)
Thanks for the feedback!
I totally agree. My good old days were when my parents was responsible for me. I smooched off them until I finished high school and joined the Army. After that, life was never the same.
I personally thought the seventies was decent. But then again I was naive until I joined the military. How about those doomsday prophets in the seventies who predicted the end of the world every year. I wonder if they thought those were the good old days?
Interesting viewpoint and very logical. I have fond memories of my parents and how they kept the family together during tough times. We had political, religious, and wordly conversations at the dinner table mostly about the WWII, Korean War, and the Vietnam wars, and of stock commodities. They were the good old days from a family perspective but tough times economically and socially.
Typo, it should have read ‘thousands’
Thanks for the correction.
IMHO things can only get worse.
> Tell us how you really feel. :)
> Thanks for the feedback!
Don’t mind me, I’m just grumpy today.
Hey, join the club on the grumpy day! I had just attened a political rally the day before writing the article. We had four politicians speaking and each one talked about the good old days and I just got fed up and walked out because none of them had a real plan for the future. They used the past to give the audience that warm, fuzzy feeling. When it was all said and done all we were left with was...well, the past!
> Hey, join the club on the grumpy day!
Grumpy days happen. Best not to let them get you down. Don’t pay too much mind to my grumpy feedback. Spell-check is your friend, and a dictionary is an even better friend.
So is reading the piece aloud before posting it — you will catch a surprising number of mistakes that way. What looks good on paper may sound awful when read aloud — that’s a great signal to re-word things.
(My grand-daddy was a proofreader for a newspaper many years ago).
Anyrate, goodonya for posting.
Check ya, mate!
*DieHard*
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