Full Version: Good Old Days
I'm not very nostalgic about the 1960s, having been in high school during that time and knowing what it was like to have two older brothers dealing with the Vietnam War. But someone sent me this montage of the period:
Take Me Back to the Sixties
So, it got me to thinking. People do naturally get nostalgic as we age and deal with what seem to be more complex situations. Things were, or seemed to be, cheaper in the 1960s. We were younger then and life seemed simpler. I know it wasn't.
Depression was a constant companion. We were walking contradictions. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life and figured I'd be dead at age 19 or 20.
Now I'm 55.
Are you nostalgic for the Good Old Days, whatever decade you might claim as your own, or was it pretty much what it is today?
I think it was SOSDD. I think it was a function of youth, not time and place. I'm pretty happy with the here and now, although it depends on the poo coming down too. It's getting harder to move around, and eventually I'll not be moving around at all.
You could not pay me enough money to be 19 again and waiting for my draft lottery number. You could not pay me enough money to be back in high school again. Forget it, I want to move on. No nostalgia here.
I also read history. SOSDD.
Take Me Back to the Sixties
So, it got me to thinking. People do naturally get nostalgic as we age and deal with what seem to be more complex situations. Things were, or seemed to be, cheaper in the 1960s. We were younger then and life seemed simpler. I know it wasn't.
Depression was a constant companion. We were walking contradictions. I had no idea what I was going to do with my life and figured I'd be dead at age 19 or 20.
Now I'm 55.
Are you nostalgic for the Good Old Days, whatever decade you might claim as your own, or was it pretty much what it is today?
I think it was SOSDD. I think it was a function of youth, not time and place. I'm pretty happy with the here and now, although it depends on the poo coming down too. It's getting harder to move around, and eventually I'll not be moving around at all.
You could not pay me enough money to be 19 again and waiting for my draft lottery number. You could not pay me enough money to be back in high school again. Forget it, I want to move on. No nostalgia here.
I also read history. SOSDD.
Are you nostalgic for the Good Old Days, whatever decade you might claim as your own, or was it pretty much what it is today?
I was born in 1969, so I spent my childhood (in the UK) during the 1970's and then I was a teenager during the 1980's. My family moved back to Denmark in 1986, and I couldn't speak Danish so I spent the next two years, from 16 to 18 years of age in a depressed state of teenage angst.
Looking back at the period, I can't really say it was all that much fun since I was always an air headed child, off in my own soap bubble world and indifferent to events around me. Some few political events imprinted themselves on my mind however, like the great, and futile, miners and teachers strikes against Thatcher during the 80's, the Falklands war in 1982 and the ongoing attacks by the IRA. The world changed completely when I came to Denmark. England had been such a violent place by comparison that for years I felt dazed and confused with regards to who I was and why, and what for and so on. I joined the military as a means of finding some kind of a focus but it didn't really work. It wasn't until I fell in love with my girl friend in 1993 that I finally found some inner peace.
As a consequence of how I dealt with life, I am not certain whether or not the 1970's and 80's were a better place than the 1990's and this shiny new twenty first century. There was war and terrorism in my childhood too so in one respect I don't feel that much has changed.
What has changed, for me, is the fact that in the last seven years, I've seen my political views shifting further and further towards nationalism (the soft mainstream Danish variety as opposed to the jack booted skin head variety). This shift has been provoked by very clear events and social developments. Things which may have taken place in the 1980's, but as far as I am aware, didn't. Most specifically, the rise of multiculture as a powerful political ideology has forced me to conclude that my nation is under direct threat from exterior ideological forces which wish to replace Denmark with a multicultural, federal European state.
Such a notion did not even exist in my perception until around 2004 and it was a rude awakening to see green politicians, whom I had always voted for and supported, coming on to the streets to support extremist religious fundamentalists and to call for nothing less than the destruction of Israel. As a person with Jewish family, I began to understand what people like me might have felt in the 1920's. Watching Hizb'allah and Hizb ut Tahir marching under green and black banners through the same streets of Copenhagen that once saw brown shirted nazi's marching under black and red banners, whilst socialist MP's held speaches in support of these extremist religious weirdo's as they once pandered to extremist nationalist wacko's was the last straw. I put aside left wing ideology and like so many other former left wingers, I voted for the Danish Peoples Party.
All the Scandinavian cities have seen crime rates explode in the last decade with statistics showing a ten fold increase in violent and sexual crimes, and right across the map, the demographics show the fast growing Muslim communities as the epicentre for this depressing trend. At the same time, Muslim organisations make near constant demads for religous, legal and social consessions, without ever offering anything but threats of violence in return.
The world might not have changed, but I certainly have. I became a father and saw that the world I am leaving to my daughter is a world in flux. If we do not stand up to the extremists, the religious fundies and the left wingers in Bruxelles, Denmark is going to disapear as a nation state, dillute by a massive wave of socialist sponsored immigration. Its already happened in numerous European cities, not least in neighbouring Sweden where 60 years of unchecked socialist governments have led to 100,000 immigrant a year entering a country with a population under 10 million whilst 50,000 Swedes flee the country.
In the 'good old days', Denmark, though threatend from abroad by Hitler and his goons, was a land of law and order, democracy and national pride. These things are still intact, but today they are threatened by new political and religious ideologies, just as intolerant as the nazi's and potentially (given the fertility rate of Muslim women) far more dangerous.
I was born in 1969, so I spent my childhood (in the UK) during the 1970's and then I was a teenager during the 1980's. My family moved back to Denmark in 1986, and I couldn't speak Danish so I spent the next two years, from 16 to 18 years of age in a depressed state of teenage angst.
Looking back at the period, I can't really say it was all that much fun since I was always an air headed child, off in my own soap bubble world and indifferent to events around me. Some few political events imprinted themselves on my mind however, like the great, and futile, miners and teachers strikes against Thatcher during the 80's, the Falklands war in 1982 and the ongoing attacks by the IRA. The world changed completely when I came to Denmark. England had been such a violent place by comparison that for years I felt dazed and confused with regards to who I was and why, and what for and so on. I joined the military as a means of finding some kind of a focus but it didn't really work. It wasn't until I fell in love with my girl friend in 1993 that I finally found some inner peace.
As a consequence of how I dealt with life, I am not certain whether or not the 1970's and 80's were a better place than the 1990's and this shiny new twenty first century. There was war and terrorism in my childhood too so in one respect I don't feel that much has changed.
What has changed, for me, is the fact that in the last seven years, I've seen my political views shifting further and further towards nationalism (the soft mainstream Danish variety as opposed to the jack booted skin head variety). This shift has been provoked by very clear events and social developments. Things which may have taken place in the 1980's, but as far as I am aware, didn't. Most specifically, the rise of multiculture as a powerful political ideology has forced me to conclude that my nation is under direct threat from exterior ideological forces which wish to replace Denmark with a multicultural, federal European state.
Such a notion did not even exist in my perception until around 2004 and it was a rude awakening to see green politicians, whom I had always voted for and supported, coming on to the streets to support extremist religious fundamentalists and to call for nothing less than the destruction of Israel. As a person with Jewish family, I began to understand what people like me might have felt in the 1920's. Watching Hizb'allah and Hizb ut Tahir marching under green and black banners through the same streets of Copenhagen that once saw brown shirted nazi's marching under black and red banners, whilst socialist MP's held speaches in support of these extremist religious weirdo's as they once pandered to extremist nationalist wacko's was the last straw. I put aside left wing ideology and like so many other former left wingers, I voted for the Danish Peoples Party.
All the Scandinavian cities have seen crime rates explode in the last decade with statistics showing a ten fold increase in violent and sexual crimes, and right across the map, the demographics show the fast growing Muslim communities as the epicentre for this depressing trend. At the same time, Muslim organisations make near constant demads for religous, legal and social consessions, without ever offering anything but threats of violence in return.
The world might not have changed, but I certainly have. I became a father and saw that the world I am leaving to my daughter is a world in flux. If we do not stand up to the extremists, the religious fundies and the left wingers in Bruxelles, Denmark is going to disapear as a nation state, dillute by a massive wave of socialist sponsored immigration. Its already happened in numerous European cities, not least in neighbouring Sweden where 60 years of unchecked socialist governments have led to 100,000 immigrant a year entering a country with a population under 10 million whilst 50,000 Swedes flee the country.
In the 'good old days', Denmark, though threatend from abroad by Hitler and his goons, was a land of law and order, democracy and national pride. These things are still intact, but today they are threatened by new political and religious ideologies, just as intolerant as the nazi's and potentially (given the fertility rate of Muslim women) far more dangerous.
I was born in 1956, so my formative years were the 1960's. I must admit that I still have a great deal of attraction to that decade, from the trivial (the extremely silly "beach" movies of the time) to the profound (the youth movement, the peace movement, the first stirrings of environmentalism, gay rights, and second wave feminism.) I still listen to classic rock and roll from that time. My favorite movie is still 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). I still wear tie-dyed T-shirts. So, yes, I suppose I am nostalgic for that time.
Why? Perhaps because, despite all the violence of the time -- the war in Vietnam, racial conflicts, political assassinations -- there seemed to be a sense that tomorrow might be better. The Kennedys were shot down, but the dream of Camelot survived. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered, but his legacy lives on. We had the Summer of Hate, but we had the Summer of Love. We had Kent State and Altamont, but we had Woodstock and Apollo.
It is remarkable to recall that the future depicted in my favorite film seemed plausible forty years ago.
The Eighties were a depressing time for those of who who carried the Sixties in our hearts. The Reagan landslides, the rise of the Religious Right, the backlash against feminism; all these things made us feel like strangers in a strange land.
Yet even though I am drawn to a time which must seem like ancient history to most Americans, I continue to look forward. I no longer expect to live to see the sort of technological utopia imagined by the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, but I have hope that the centuries to come will be better than the one I live in. It does my heart good to know that young Americans take the basic assumptions of feminism for granted, even if they may claim not to be feminists. It delights me that there is far more support for gay rights among the youngest voters than any other group. It pleases me that going green is no longer limited to a few hippies.
The Sixties are back, and better than ever. Peace, man.
Why? Perhaps because, despite all the violence of the time -- the war in Vietnam, racial conflicts, political assassinations -- there seemed to be a sense that tomorrow might be better. The Kennedys were shot down, but the dream of Camelot survived. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered, but his legacy lives on. We had the Summer of Hate, but we had the Summer of Love. We had Kent State and Altamont, but we had Woodstock and Apollo.
It is remarkable to recall that the future depicted in my favorite film seemed plausible forty years ago.
The Eighties were a depressing time for those of who who carried the Sixties in our hearts. The Reagan landslides, the rise of the Religious Right, the backlash against feminism; all these things made us feel like strangers in a strange land.
Yet even though I am drawn to a time which must seem like ancient history to most Americans, I continue to look forward. I no longer expect to live to see the sort of technological utopia imagined by the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke, but I have hope that the centuries to come will be better than the one I live in. It does my heart good to know that young Americans take the basic assumptions of feminism for granted, even if they may claim not to be feminists. It delights me that there is far more support for gay rights among the youngest voters than any other group. It pleases me that going green is no longer limited to a few hippies.
The Sixties are back, and better than ever. Peace, man.
Arthur C. Clarke died? I only just learned this after rushing to wikipedia to check and I see he died this very day 
Are you nostalgic for the Good Old Days, whatever decade you might claim as your own, or was it pretty much what it is today?
In all honesty, no, I'm not personally nostalgic about very much.
I think Golden Ages are what we see through the haze of hindsight, and not through the clarity of objective assessment. And, reinforcing that, disappointments about the way things are today are - as often as not - due more to the unreality of expectations* we had in the past than to present day shortcomings.
*e.g. that poverty and disease would be non-existent, that we'd be flitting between planets just like on Star Trek, that we'd all be zipping around in flying cars like The Jetsons, etc.
That not to say that certain aspects of my life have not been better than they are now (my career has been taking something of a detour for the past few years, but I'm doing things about that). But overall, I think most aspects of most people's lives are somewhat better than they have been before, despite some aspects of them being worse for some people.
In all honesty, no, I'm not personally nostalgic about very much.
I think Golden Ages are what we see through the haze of hindsight, and not through the clarity of objective assessment. And, reinforcing that, disappointments about the way things are today are - as often as not - due more to the unreality of expectations* we had in the past than to present day shortcomings.
*e.g. that poverty and disease would be non-existent, that we'd be flitting between planets just like on Star Trek, that we'd all be zipping around in flying cars like The Jetsons, etc.
That not to say that certain aspects of my life have not been better than they are now (my career has been taking something of a detour for the past few years, but I'm doing things about that). But overall, I think most aspects of most people's lives are somewhat better than they have been before, despite some aspects of them being worse for some people.
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