The preceding quote came from the article entitled “Nostalgia” from the academic journal, Psychoanalytic Dialogues (May/Jun 2011), written by Dr. Avishai Margalit. Nostalgia is this week’s topic because, as Dr. Margalit writes:
"Nostalgia, like its cousin sentimentally, tends to distort reality in a particular way. The difference between sentimentality and nostalgia is that nostalgia distorts the reality of time past. Nostalgia idealizes its object . . . and locates it in a time of great purity and innocence." (Margalit, p. 273)
Romanticizing the past and remembering the “good ole’ days” drives political behavior in many Americans. Pundits like Bill O’Reilly opine that “it’s not a traditional America anymore.” (I suggest that you click here to view O’Reilly talking about traditional America, just to see his point of view). Pundits, politicians, and political think-tanks use nostalgia against us so we will vote for the person or cause that they want. O’Reilly talks about “traditional America” in the terms that America is not the prosperous, moral country it once was, back in the 1940’s and 1950’s. O’Reilly talks about how the entitlement culture of Americans who want “free stuff” has taken hold. He opines about the pro-choice movement wanting abortions on demand. He also opines about how marijuana legalization will harm this country. Pundits like O’Reilly believe that this country is not as great as it once was. There are millions of Americans that agree with him.
These Americans vote for politicians because they want the glory days of America back. The conservative right constantly talks about their heroes, Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln, and how they want to find a presidents like these men again. Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln are the standard-bearers for the Republican Party. In fairness, the liberal left uses Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton as their standard-bearers when they romanticize about the past. Left-leaning Americans would love to find another FDR or Clinton to put into the White House again. However, let’s be realistic, presidents like these men are few and far between. For every Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt we have as president, we have several Warren G. Hardings, Andrew Johnsons, or Herbert Hoovers. Not every president can have a grand legacy.
Besides, we all distort the past. We romanticize the past. We remember the good times and we think how wonderful a certain time in our life was and how we would like things to be that way again. We do that with this country’s history. We think of how prosperous the 1950’s or the 1990’s were and we dream about going back there. We want to have those “good ole’ days” again. We want to go back to the days of Ozzie, Harriet, and the Beaver. We want traditional families with a sense of morality, honesty, and hard work. Life was simple and so wholesome back in those days.
It is true that times are tough. The economy is sluggish, we have a crippling national debt, the wage gap between the poor and the rich is widening, polarization is at its height. However, our past, that so many people seem to be clamoring for, is not as pristine as we remember.
Look at the 1950’s, which Bill O’Reilly and other Americans seem to idolize. They have visions of Wally and the Beaver in their head. American life was so wholesome back then. The loving husband was hard at work while the doting wife was hard at work being a good mother that cooked, cleaned, and made sure that the household was running well. However, that was television. Life was not so simple, especially for women in the 1950’s. I took a sociology class a few years ago that highlighted the roles of women back during the 50’s. The professor pulled out a home economic school book from that time period and read it to us. Women in the 50’s were expected to stay home all day and cook and clean. They were suppose to take care of the children, as well. However, when the man of the house got home, the woman was told to wait at the door with her husband’s slippers and favorite drink so she could greet him properly at the door. The woman had to make sure that the children were playing quietly in their rooms before dad got home from work. This is because the man had been working so hard during the day that he did not need to deal with that noise. The woman was also told to not complain about her day. Only the man could do that. The woman should never upset her man. He needs to be calm and relaxed from his long day. Does that scenario seem ideal? Does our society really want to go back to the 1950’s where a woman’s thoughts or hard work were not recognized? The man was the only hard working person in the family. I thought marriage was a partnership and not a dictatorship. Taking care of a house and the children is hard work. The thought process of our society in the 1950’s that the man was the only hard working person in the relationship was degrading and disgusting. The wife must cater to her husband’s every whim while she denies her own person-hood. To prove this point, look at these print ads from the 1950’s:
Those ads are a good representation of how women were treated back in the “good ole’ days.” But that’s not the only negative attribute of our country during the 1950’s. One could also look at the Jim Crow laws that were still in place at that time. African-Americans had that “separate but equal” status branded on their foreheads. The United States, especially the southern U.S., had laws that segregated the African-American community from whites. African-Americans had separate schools, separate sections on public transportation, separate restrooms, separate drinking fountains, separate dining sections in restaurants, etc. Again, do we want to go back to that time in America?
On an international scale, the 50’s were a turbulent time. We saw the Korean War (1950-1953), the start of the Vietnam War (1959), the Cuban Revolution (1953-1959), the Arab-Israel conflict continuing in the Suez Crisis (1956). The United States was also deeply in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The war was referred as “cold” because there were never any large battles between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War was mostly fought through rhetoric and military tension. However, Americans were in constant fear that the Soviet Union and the United States would enter into a nuclear war. Nuclear annihilation was a constant fear during that time.
After reviewing the history during that time, are you (if you ever were) clamoring for those “good ole’ days” to come back? I know I am not.
I am not trying to be the purveyor of doom and gloom. Nostalgia is a powerful thought process that helps us through the tough times. Sweet memories of our childhood or early years can bring about great happiness. I think back to great memories of childhood, vacations, and moments of achievement and that makes me happy. Those grand memories help me strive for a better life. There is nothing wrong with being nostalgic. There is nothing wrong with a yearning for those happy times in our life. However, we must be careful. Nostalgia can distort our past, especially in the realm of politics. Nostalgia is just another tool politicians use to get them to divide and conquer us. They will use the images of Ronald Reagan or Franklin Roosevelt as a call to the American people. They will try to use the fond memories we have of our favorite presidents and favorite time periods in order for us to vote for them. If a politician has such great ideas, then why don’t they run on those positions? Why do they always try to use the nostalgia card? They do this because they know we will get emotional. We get emotional because we think about the fond memories that we have and we attach them to society at large. We think about those happy times and we automatically assume that everything, including our country, was in a grand state, even though the reality was different. We are human; we are prone to attaching great sentiment to the past. It brings us happiness.
Just remember that politicians will try to manipulate our memories by telling us grand stories about the past. They are manipulating our basic human emotions so they can get a vote. Again, nothing wrong with being nostalgic, just don’t let those thoughts distort the past because:
“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” – Marcel Proust
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