Why nostalgia for the previous era is stupid.
What a lot of people do is complain about how shitty today's society is, and how much better it was 20-30ish years ago.
1."The music today is so stupid...Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber suck rhino nuts! People should listen to Led Zeppelin or Nirvana!"
2."People are so obsessed with sex...it wasn't like this before..."
3."Politicians today SUCK!"
4. And, of course: "EVERYTHING SUCKS NOW. I WISH IT WAS LIKE 30 YEARS AGO OR SOMETHING!!! D:"
I have so many problems with these.
People who complain of this are so so so so often teenagers who weren't even conceived at the time. So how would they know everything was better?
Truth is, it probably wasn't any better. I won't assume because of course, I'd be a hypocrite.
So here's my rebuttals, complete with primary documents.
1.Those "good old" bands weren't popular back then, as Cracked.com pointed out. It was more like this.
HELL YEAHHHH...|:
What I find especially aggravating is that the same people aren't willing to explore different kinds of music. They lump into categories- "metal" and "country", for example, and their experience with said genres is minimal. How are you supposed to hate an entire genre you've barely even touched? It's like going "I hate apples even if I've never eaten one."
Truth is, the stuff that we think is awesome today certainly wasn't popular once upon a time. This happens with art as well- people like Monet and Van Gogh were criticized heavily back in the day. Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, and that was to his brother. Meanwhile, a majority of the boring old paintings from the era are forgotten.
It's just the way it works.
In 20 years, people will have no recollection of Justin Bieber and instead be going "omg MCR was da best!" or something (not that a bunch of people don't do it already, but I'm sure you catch my drift).
2. People have always been obsessed with sex. ALWAYS. It's one of the primary purposes of all living things: reproduce. Egyptian art had big dicks everywhere.Pompeii is covered in pornographic frescoes. There's plenty of sex in the Bible, even. In medieval times, peasants were off fucking in the hay everywhere and "chivalry" was a guy trying to get with an exceptionally pretty lady...all just like today.
I don't think there's much else to say on the matter.
3. What I hate is that people who complain about politicians and leaders of today don't provide examples of the good politicians from whatever bygone era.
I'm sure that someone with a degree of knowledge about the Classical era would say Themistocles or Pericles.
True, Themistocles was possessed with an uncanny prophet-like ability to prepare Athens for the Persian Wars. As Plutarch says: "Themistocles, however, believed that [the Battle of Marathon] was a prelude to a far greater struggle."
And Pericles was amazing for Athens in his time, doing good stuff for the war effort and giving Athens a reputation for glory with public works projects.
But both were heavily criticized in their time
Themistocles was mainly in politics to inflate his ego, and because of this he pissed people off. He was eventually kicked out of Athens and had a bunch of people on his tail, trying to kill him.
Pericles was also heavily criticized for the lavish building projects, and his opponents essentially called him "onion head." (He had a slightly malformed skull, this his why busts of him always show him wearing a helmet.)
But no one is complaining about that stuff now.
And in 32894673 years, people may be like "Obama was awesome!" or "Gillard is god!" or hell, even "Bush was the best!"
There are good leaders today, we just refuse to acknowledge it because anyone in power immediately sucks because all the problems are their fault (Including natural disasters! Dammit Gillard, why did you cause bushfires, flooding and cyclones! Shame!).
4. And here's the huge generalization that people decide to spout- "it just used to be better."
The same exact nostalgic tone is taken throughout history.
The Greeks were like this. Hesiod speaks of the five ages of man in his Works and Days. The first was the Golden Age, where everyone was perfect and faultless and happy and they lived with the gods. Then the Silver Age, which wasn't quite as nice. Then the Bronze Age, which was a bit worse. Then the Heroic Age, which was a step up from the Bronze Age because the men were noble heroes, demigods. This was the age where stuff like Troy and Theseus and Perseus and all the myths and stuff supposedly happened.
And then the shitey 5th generation- the Iron Age.
And yes, Hesiod says exactly what people say today: "Thereafter, would I were not among the men of the fifth generation, but either had died before or been born afterwords. For now truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from their labour or sorrow..."
He bitches about the same things people bitch about today- "Kids are so disrespectful dammit!!!" and "The lords are horrible and corrupted!"
Then, in the Renaissance, people wished it was Ancient Greece or Rome, because people then were obviously so wise and pious.
And now, people wish it was merely 30 years ago, because so much has clearly changed. Even if nothing changed in the 1600+ years between the Renaissance and the Classical Era.
TL;DR VERSION
Nothing changes. Humans haven't evolved, and it is too much to hope that anything has changed in a few decades.
If you hate the current day because you thing the culture sucks or you feel isolated, remember that if you had been born before, you'd be one of three things:
1. One of the people listening to the horrible pop music of the day.
2. One of the people bitching about how the previous decade was so much better.
3. One of the people who is lonely and isolated and teased for listening to Led Zeppelin.
1."The music today is so stupid...Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber suck rhino nuts! People should listen to Led Zeppelin or Nirvana!"
2."People are so obsessed with sex...it wasn't like this before..."
3."Politicians today SUCK!"
4. And, of course: "EVERYTHING SUCKS NOW. I WISH IT WAS LIKE 30 YEARS AGO OR SOMETHING!!! D:"
I have so many problems with these.
People who complain of this are so so so so often teenagers who weren't even conceived at the time. So how would they know everything was better?
Truth is, it probably wasn't any better. I won't assume because of course, I'd be a hypocrite.
So here's my rebuttals, complete with primary documents.
1.Those "good old" bands weren't popular back then, as Cracked.com pointed out. It was more like this.
HELL YEAHHHH...|:
What I find especially aggravating is that the same people aren't willing to explore different kinds of music. They lump into categories- "metal" and "country", for example, and their experience with said genres is minimal. How are you supposed to hate an entire genre you've barely even touched? It's like going "I hate apples even if I've never eaten one."
Truth is, the stuff that we think is awesome today certainly wasn't popular once upon a time. This happens with art as well- people like Monet and Van Gogh were criticized heavily back in the day. Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, and that was to his brother. Meanwhile, a majority of the boring old paintings from the era are forgotten.
It's just the way it works.
In 20 years, people will have no recollection of Justin Bieber and instead be going "omg MCR was da best!" or something (not that a bunch of people don't do it already, but I'm sure you catch my drift).
2. People have always been obsessed with sex. ALWAYS. It's one of the primary purposes of all living things: reproduce. Egyptian art had big dicks everywhere.Pompeii is covered in pornographic frescoes. There's plenty of sex in the Bible, even. In medieval times, peasants were off fucking in the hay everywhere and "chivalry" was a guy trying to get with an exceptionally pretty lady...all just like today.
I don't think there's much else to say on the matter.
3. What I hate is that people who complain about politicians and leaders of today don't provide examples of the good politicians from whatever bygone era.
I'm sure that someone with a degree of knowledge about the Classical era would say Themistocles or Pericles.
True, Themistocles was possessed with an uncanny prophet-like ability to prepare Athens for the Persian Wars. As Plutarch says: "Themistocles, however, believed that [the Battle of Marathon] was a prelude to a far greater struggle."
And Pericles was amazing for Athens in his time, doing good stuff for the war effort and giving Athens a reputation for glory with public works projects.
But both were heavily criticized in their time
Themistocles was mainly in politics to inflate his ego, and because of this he pissed people off. He was eventually kicked out of Athens and had a bunch of people on his tail, trying to kill him.
Pericles was also heavily criticized for the lavish building projects, and his opponents essentially called him "onion head." (He had a slightly malformed skull, this his why busts of him always show him wearing a helmet.)
But no one is complaining about that stuff now.
And in 32894673 years, people may be like "Obama was awesome!" or "Gillard is god!" or hell, even "Bush was the best!"
There are good leaders today, we just refuse to acknowledge it because anyone in power immediately sucks because all the problems are their fault (Including natural disasters! Dammit Gillard, why did you cause bushfires, flooding and cyclones! Shame!).
4. And here's the huge generalization that people decide to spout- "it just used to be better."
The same exact nostalgic tone is taken throughout history.
The Greeks were like this. Hesiod speaks of the five ages of man in his Works and Days. The first was the Golden Age, where everyone was perfect and faultless and happy and they lived with the gods. Then the Silver Age, which wasn't quite as nice. Then the Bronze Age, which was a bit worse. Then the Heroic Age, which was a step up from the Bronze Age because the men were noble heroes, demigods. This was the age where stuff like Troy and Theseus and Perseus and all the myths and stuff supposedly happened.
And then the shitey 5th generation- the Iron Age.
And yes, Hesiod says exactly what people say today: "Thereafter, would I were not among the men of the fifth generation, but either had died before or been born afterwords. For now truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from their labour or sorrow..."
He bitches about the same things people bitch about today- "Kids are so disrespectful dammit!!!" and "The lords are horrible and corrupted!"
Then, in the Renaissance, people wished it was Ancient Greece or Rome, because people then were obviously so wise and pious.
And now, people wish it was merely 30 years ago, because so much has clearly changed. Even if nothing changed in the 1600+ years between the Renaissance and the Classical Era.
TL;DR VERSION
Nothing changes. Humans haven't evolved, and it is too much to hope that anything has changed in a few decades.
If you hate the current day because you thing the culture sucks or you feel isolated, remember that if you had been born before, you'd be one of three things:
1. One of the people listening to the horrible pop music of the day.
2. One of the people bitching about how the previous decade was so much better.
3. One of the people who is lonely and isolated and teased for listening to Led Zeppelin.