Here's to......

"What me worry ?"

 

@RightHand I mean no disrespect at you or anyone else for what I am about to say. The reason I am saying it is, we live in the here and now not in yesterday.

So my question is what is the point of this thread? Nostalgia?

This is just my view and not necessarily the truth. We must live in today, right now, so many people do not, they live in yesterday or tomorrow (what might happen) The brain is designed to keep you safe so it likes to live in the past pleasant memories and search for future threats. The problem is that we forget today. All we really have is here and now.


our circumstances today are what they are today. We cant change that. I just think being nostalgic about the past does a disservice to us and others in several ways. 1) when we compare the past to now, our brain has forgotten all the things that didn't work in that era so the past always looks better than today and that just isn't realistic. (if you took the time to dig you could find things that were equally as bad back in the day) 2) we do a disservice to the people around us because IF the 'past was better' then 'all y'all who didn't live in the past are just poor slobs ' is the implied comparison. (ok the language may be strong there but I hope you see my point)

I am not a fan of nostalgia because I believe it takes time and energy away from solving today's problems. It takes time and energy away from creating a future that works.

I do agree that there were better manners and social interactions than there are today because when you know someone you have a vested interest in being polite. But by the same token, yesterday did not allow like minded people 3000 miles apart to share mutual interest.

 

I see your points @ghrit and @RightHand thanks for the discussion.

 

Yes, you do have to live in the here and now also look ahead using past experiences to deal with what is happening. Your right about most people looking at the past and thinking how great it was without seeing the past problems. That's what starts putting people into the sheeple status when they don't see the same problems coming that happened in the past. Just look at what is happening now and compare it to the rise of Nazi Germany, pretty eye opening and scary.

 

I am all for nostalgia....the good memories of lived experience...not many would feel nostalgic about the crappy painful and frustrating lived experiences of the past. Having said that, to quote L.P Hartley


We can remember some of our experiences of the past,, but our perceptions of the past aren't the past, just impressions; some perhaps more accurately remembered than others.




Some of us as adults could quite easily live in the world that was our childhood, accepting the limitations, (and some advantages) that no longer apply in the present time. To some extent, that is what prepping is about. Having to live in a world more like the late 19th century (or earlier) than the 21st century should the grid go down or some disaster of similar magnitude happens. That does not mean that we would also need or want to go back to the social or political structures of the past.



On the other hand, some people pine for that imagined "golden age" of the past when women knew their place







When living a wholesome life was being obedient...to fathers, husbands and gods.




I am all for living a simpler life, but in the present...not in the past.

 

Dad worked at Chevron, used to tell me that he filled up the tank and then the hose/nozzle went into the fill bucket to get the rest of the gas out of the hose, it was only $.20/gallon at the time, He had an Mechanical Engineering Degree, pumping gas in the the early 50's. You think life sucks now, think about after WWII.

Rancher