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I’m now in my sixth decade of life. I’m a “person of age.” I get solicitations from AARP all the time (no, I haven’t joined…) On the whole, I don’t mind being being 60-something so much, though I do sometimes wish my body was more the one I had in my 30s or even 40s. But I’ve noticed a tendency in people of my age that bothers me.
That’s the tendency to look at the past as a Golden Age when things were better. Most of the time when I hear that, I want to respond “Are you insane?”
I love history. I’d love to be a time traveler who could go back, visit other times and see them as they really were. The writer in me would love to be able to take the experience and use it in my writing to bring those times to vivid life on the page. I’m intensely interested in how society works in past times, in how people interacted, in how one coped.
But I’ve no interest in actually living there. I much prefer here and now, even with all its problems. Realistically, I might feel differently if I weren’t lucky enough to be living in a relatively stable, relatively well-off country, and be safely middle-class (and white, and male) myself. I enjoy a fair amount of privilege that others don’t, and it behooves me to keep that in mind. If I lived in a war-torn country, I might legitimately look back at the time before war and think “Things were better then.”
But usually, when I hear someone grumbling about how things were better then, I just shake my head. I don’t know where this nostalgia for the 1940s or 1950s or 1960s comes from. If you were gay back then, you’d better not even say that aloud -- it’s somewhat better now for you. If you were a person of color, you’d be confronting blatant prejudice and laws designed to keep certain privileges from you -- again, it’s somewhat better now, but we’re still working on racial issues. If you were female, there were jobs you simply couldn’t do, expectations as to your limitations, and heaven forbid you try to make it on your own -- yes, things are better now, but we still see “glass ceilings” and still see inequalities in treatment. If you fell in love with a person of another race, in some places and times you couldn’t even legally be married, and even if you could, you were going to face harsh prejudice -- better now, yes, but you’ll still be looked at and have to be vigilant about prejudice.
Back then, if you became ill, your options were far more limited. Back then, if you wanted information, you’d have to hit the library. Back then, you wouldn’t be carrying your phone around with you -- and your phone wouldn’t also be able to connect to the internet or take a picture or video. Back then, your options for travel were limited. Back then, the air wasn’t nearly as clean in the cities. Back then, dentistry was barbaric. Back then… I could go on and on.
Those were the Good Old Days? No, things aren't perfect now, but on the whole, I'd say we're in a better place.
I’m sorry, people of age, there was no golden time in your recent past when everything was Good and Right and Better. That’s an illusion, a chimera. Stop sounding like some curmudgeon. Yes, things have changed and you don’t agree with some of those changes. Some of the changes mean that it’s not as easy for you to keep doing things the way you always did. Some of the changes mean that you have to learn new tricks or technologies. Some of the changes may even make things a little harder for you. Well, deal with it. If nothing else, learning new stuff might keep your mind sharp and agile.
“Things were better back then.” People have been saying that since we invented language. I can imagine some Cro-Magnon saying the same thing: “Why back when I was a kid, the berries grew in every season and the mastodons were so plentiful we had meat every night. Things were good then.”
There’s always change. Change is permanent and ongoing. Change is still happening and will continue to happen. Forty years from now, some of the current twenty-year olds will be grumping and talking about how much better things were in the twenty-tens. They’ll be wrong, too.
Live in the present. Revel in what it gives you and the possibilities and opportunities it presents. And know that there’s a future ahead that will, inevitably, be different and hopefully even better.
That’s the tendency to look at the past as a Golden Age when things were better. Most of the time when I hear that, I want to respond “Are you insane?”
I love history. I’d love to be a time traveler who could go back, visit other times and see them as they really were. The writer in me would love to be able to take the experience and use it in my writing to bring those times to vivid life on the page. I’m intensely interested in how society works in past times, in how people interacted, in how one coped.
But I’ve no interest in actually living there. I much prefer here and now, even with all its problems. Realistically, I might feel differently if I weren’t lucky enough to be living in a relatively stable, relatively well-off country, and be safely middle-class (and white, and male) myself. I enjoy a fair amount of privilege that others don’t, and it behooves me to keep that in mind. If I lived in a war-torn country, I might legitimately look back at the time before war and think “Things were better then.”
But usually, when I hear someone grumbling about how things were better then, I just shake my head. I don’t know where this nostalgia for the 1940s or 1950s or 1960s comes from. If you were gay back then, you’d better not even say that aloud -- it’s somewhat better now for you. If you were a person of color, you’d be confronting blatant prejudice and laws designed to keep certain privileges from you -- again, it’s somewhat better now, but we’re still working on racial issues. If you were female, there were jobs you simply couldn’t do, expectations as to your limitations, and heaven forbid you try to make it on your own -- yes, things are better now, but we still see “glass ceilings” and still see inequalities in treatment. If you fell in love with a person of another race, in some places and times you couldn’t even legally be married, and even if you could, you were going to face harsh prejudice -- better now, yes, but you’ll still be looked at and have to be vigilant about prejudice.
Back then, if you became ill, your options were far more limited. Back then, if you wanted information, you’d have to hit the library. Back then, you wouldn’t be carrying your phone around with you -- and your phone wouldn’t also be able to connect to the internet or take a picture or video. Back then, your options for travel were limited. Back then, the air wasn’t nearly as clean in the cities. Back then, dentistry was barbaric. Back then… I could go on and on.
Those were the Good Old Days? No, things aren't perfect now, but on the whole, I'd say we're in a better place.
I’m sorry, people of age, there was no golden time in your recent past when everything was Good and Right and Better. That’s an illusion, a chimera. Stop sounding like some curmudgeon. Yes, things have changed and you don’t agree with some of those changes. Some of the changes mean that it’s not as easy for you to keep doing things the way you always did. Some of the changes mean that you have to learn new tricks or technologies. Some of the changes may even make things a little harder for you. Well, deal with it. If nothing else, learning new stuff might keep your mind sharp and agile.
“Things were better back then.” People have been saying that since we invented language. I can imagine some Cro-Magnon saying the same thing: “Why back when I was a kid, the berries grew in every season and the mastodons were so plentiful we had meat every night. Things were good then.”
There’s always change. Change is permanent and ongoing. Change is still happening and will continue to happen. Forty years from now, some of the current twenty-year olds will be grumping and talking about how much better things were in the twenty-tens. They’ll be wrong, too.
Live in the present. Revel in what it gives you and the possibilities and opportunities it presents. And know that there’s a future ahead that will, inevitably, be different and hopefully even better.
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Re: Oh yeah?