Aug 27, 2023
That's always the rub, isn't it? It's not just that nostalgia has a way of making you remember only the good parts, but the good parts were never evenly distributed. There are some people for who your decade of nostalgia was terrible.
And often, the past world that politicians describe never existed for anyone. It's a complete fabrication.
One of the arguments that I often use to break myself out of nostalgic navel gazing is that if things were so great, people wouldn't have pushed for change. There's a counterargument that people are easily bored and never satisfied, and thus will always push for change, good or bad, but I don't buy it. People are, by default, afraid of change.
To use a real-world example, would Brexit have happened if things were going a lot better in the UK? Probably not. There were people who would have voted for it, sure, but I think more people wouldn't have wanted to risk their comfortable lives, if they had them. And now there's a lot of regret, because Brexit made things materially worse, but at the time of the vote, there were enough people who felt it was worth trying *something* to change course.
People can make mistakes, but the idea that the past was better and we were foolish for wanting to change the way we live ignores the realities of how life actually was, both good and bad.
(Also, a small typo. Sorry for always pointing these out: "fort he people")
