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.