There once was a highly modernized and rich country that rejected modernity and decided to RETVRN to traditional values. That country was Iran. It didn’t work out well for most people.
The left is also extremely susceptible to this rose-coloured glasses nostalgism (although perhaps for slightly different reasons). You can see it every day when someone inevitably posts something like "I am tired of living through unprecedented times" (ever read a history textbook?). I also remember being incredulous at a post where someone claimed that gay rights were stronger under *Bill Clinton* than the current administration. I don't know what world that person is living in but DOMA and "Don't Ask Don't Tell" were not good policies for gay people, not to mention how radically different broad public sentiment was at the time. While the current moment is indeed tumultuous, I think everyone on both sides needs to recalibrate their dish a little bit.
You are absolutely right that things in general keep getting better in so many ways.
I often feel nostalgic and when I examine it I think it is because:
1. Life was happy and easy when I was a kid and had no responsibility. So, thinking of the things that we had and the way things looked back then makes me feel comforted. They also remind me of people who are gone.
2. I wonder if there is only so much change our psyches can absorb comfortably. For every generation in recent time there has been an acceleration of change in technology and culture.
When I think through it rationally, I’m much more comfortable and thriving at a job that wouldn’t even exist without technology that did not exist when I was a child, but I still feel the emotional pull of wishing for the good/bad old days.
"But while conservatism doesn’t have to be backwards looking, this backwards looking posting is itself virtually always conservative."
Kind of disagree with that. Its more characteristic of conservatives but there's plenty of nostalgia on the left for the supposed idyllic times when marginal taxes on the rich where 99% and a working men could supposedly afford a house cars and college on a single salary cuz unions or something. Its just as dumb.
So I have to know, Jeremiah, do you write the branded subscription requests that show up in articles? When it says "who remembers proper blog posts" and asks people to subscribe, does Substack have some kind of software that takes a pass at that for you? Or do you have to do it yourself every time?
Pasta came to the UK (pretty much) for the first time in the 1960s and 1970s as lots of economic migrants came here from Italy and opened trattorias, particularly in London. In fact, my mum's family moved to Milan for a couple of years in the 1970s, and when they came back to parochial Surrey my grandma would make pasta occasionally; even then guests found it exotic and foreign and would ask her what it was. Her brother-in-law, a Yorkshireman, refused to eat lasagne and asked for a boiled egg instead...
(Though I'd like to clarify that the UK's food scene is now wonderful, though only has been since about the early 2000s!)
"Hey if you actually think doing heroin is bad, then why aren't you living your values and not doing heroin?"
Sure man.
I don't disagree with your main point, but this is a bad argument. And the nostalgia is referring to something real, even if people are confused about the thing that was actually better in the past: Community, human connection--bowling leagues. 3% of men had no close friends in 1990. Now that number is 15%. Close relations are the single biggest predictor of happiness. And they really were better when things were worse, even if that is just a coincidence.
There once was a highly modernized and rich country that rejected modernity and decided to RETVRN to traditional values. That country was Iran. It didn’t work out well for most people.
The left is also extremely susceptible to this rose-coloured glasses nostalgism (although perhaps for slightly different reasons). You can see it every day when someone inevitably posts something like "I am tired of living through unprecedented times" (ever read a history textbook?). I also remember being incredulous at a post where someone claimed that gay rights were stronger under *Bill Clinton* than the current administration. I don't know what world that person is living in but DOMA and "Don't Ask Don't Tell" were not good policies for gay people, not to mention how radically different broad public sentiment was at the time. While the current moment is indeed tumultuous, I think everyone on both sides needs to recalibrate their dish a little bit.
You are absolutely right that things in general keep getting better in so many ways.
I often feel nostalgic and when I examine it I think it is because:
1. Life was happy and easy when I was a kid and had no responsibility. So, thinking of the things that we had and the way things looked back then makes me feel comforted. They also remind me of people who are gone.
2. I wonder if there is only so much change our psyches can absorb comfortably. For every generation in recent time there has been an acceleration of change in technology and culture.
When I think through it rationally, I’m much more comfortable and thriving at a job that wouldn’t even exist without technology that did not exist when I was a child, but I still feel the emotional pull of wishing for the good/bad old days.
"But while conservatism doesn’t have to be backwards looking, this backwards looking posting is itself virtually always conservative."
Kind of disagree with that. Its more characteristic of conservatives but there's plenty of nostalgia on the left for the supposed idyllic times when marginal taxes on the rich where 99% and a working men could supposedly afford a house cars and college on a single salary cuz unions or something. Its just as dumb.
So I have to know, Jeremiah, do you write the branded subscription requests that show up in articles? When it says "who remembers proper blog posts" and asks people to subscribe, does Substack have some kind of software that takes a pass at that for you? Or do you have to do it yourself every time?
Those are all me! Sometimes I don't feel particularly clever and I stick to the default message, but it's fun to mix it up.
Pasta came to the UK (pretty much) for the first time in the 1960s and 1970s as lots of economic migrants came here from Italy and opened trattorias, particularly in London. In fact, my mum's family moved to Milan for a couple of years in the 1970s, and when they came back to parochial Surrey my grandma would make pasta occasionally; even then guests found it exotic and foreign and would ask her what it was. Her brother-in-law, a Yorkshireman, refused to eat lasagne and asked for a boiled egg instead...
(Though I'd like to clarify that the UK's food scene is now wonderful, though only has been since about the early 2000s!)
"You know, things ain't like they used to be, but then again, they never was." Will Rogers
History YouTuber and London Tourguide J. Draper has a relevant video on this same boomer meme, pointing out that many claims are FALSE:
https://youtu.be/RQsMj9bLZyI?si=SXt-dgAsppn1sO_x
"Hey if you actually think doing heroin is bad, then why aren't you living your values and not doing heroin?"
Sure man.
I don't disagree with your main point, but this is a bad argument. And the nostalgia is referring to something real, even if people are confused about the thing that was actually better in the past: Community, human connection--bowling leagues. 3% of men had no close friends in 1990. Now that number is 15%. Close relations are the single biggest predictor of happiness. And they really were better when things were worse, even if that is just a coincidence.