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Nostalgia, is a national disease?

TheCatWoman

The Good Old Days, when things were all rosy and better.

The Good Old Days, when we had real music, etc etc

It seems to me that nostalgia is a sort of national disease, we keep harping back to it as some golden age, except it wasn't really and every generation has it's Golden Age.. I was struck by nostalgia for the 1990's, I mean really, what was so great about the nineties?

I think this constant harping on about how great things were years ago, stops us moving forward, it stops us investing in the future, personally, politically and in thingd like our infrastructure and buildings.

I'm an historian by training and I hate nostalgia, for its distortions, the way it stops us being honest about the past, the effects it's had upon us and the world and the lengths we will go to to protect it's leftovers. I do think think archaelogical sites should be protected and historic buildings, but that should stop us from investing in the new. The past should inform the present, we should learn its lessons, and build a better future, even if it's just in our architecture and music.

Parents

  • I feel a great deal of nostalgia for shops I used to regularly shop in.

    A list of shops I enjoyed shopping in and have now disappeared. 

    • Woolworths
    • BHS
    • Littlewoods
    • Co op department stores
    • Bodycare
    • Original factory shop
    • Fultons
    • Safeway
    • Sommerfield 
    • Presto
    • Kwiksave 
    • Schofield 
    • C&A
    • Debenhams 
  • in reply to Robert124

    I have a lot of nostalgia for brick and mortar shops.  I have all ten seasons of the  1970s/80s BBC comedy,  Are you being served, on DVD.  Even then, they were nostalgic about the past.

    I had a lot of favorite shops.

    My mum liked the Co-op department store in central Leeds, I loved the Co-op store in Sheffield with its large circular wooden staircase in the centre and the bounce as i walked on it.

    Debenhams was a favourite with many older people who visited it's cafe to relax,  I enjoyed their pork meal which was cut from a large roasted joint on demand and loaded with freshly cooked potatoes and vegetables. 

    Safeway had some of the most pleasant stores that I've ever come across.

    I remember Presto for its plastic carrier bags and the red pattern which wasn't colourfast and the red dye transferred to clothing as it rubbed against people.

    And the list of memories goes on.

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  • in reply to Robert124

    I have a lot of nostalgia for brick and mortar shops.  I have all ten seasons of the  1970s/80s BBC comedy,  Are you being served, on DVD.  Even then, they were nostalgic about the past.

    I had a lot of favorite shops.

    My mum liked the Co-op department store in central Leeds, I loved the Co-op store in Sheffield with its large circular wooden staircase in the centre and the bounce as i walked on it.

    Debenhams was a favourite with many older people who visited it's cafe to relax,  I enjoyed their pork meal which was cut from a large roasted joint on demand and loaded with freshly cooked potatoes and vegetables. 

    Safeway had some of the most pleasant stores that I've ever come across.

    I remember Presto for its plastic carrier bags and the red pattern which wasn't colourfast and the red dye transferred to clothing as it rubbed against people.

    And the list of memories goes on.

Children
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