From the "Words Are Important" file: I appreciate the good-humored attempt to allow a larger understanding of nostalgia as potentially nuanced and not flat. But I doubt we have license for it. Nostalgia, by definition, is narrow; its effectiveness necessitates an idealized perspective of the past, be it melancholic or rosey. It's beca…
From the "Words Are Important" file: I appreciate the good-humored attempt to allow a larger understanding of nostalgia as potentially nuanced and not flat. But I doubt we have license for it. Nostalgia, by definition, is narrow; its effectiveness necessitates an idealized perspective of the past, be it melancholic or rosey. It's because of it's potency for impairing both personal decisions and mass mythology that I think we ought not mess much with the word. "Don't drink and drive" is good counsel. So is "You can't move into a future shrouded in nostalgia". Ok for Hollywood and popcorn but not for rebuilding a nation. One more thought, re: "the political purposes of nostalgia". Since nostalgia is a concept, it has no purpose other than that to which a person or people might bend it, either unwittingly or intentionally. The question might better be "How do we attempt to justify our behavior and habits while under the influence of nostalgia?" Or "How does nostalgia impair me when I go to the voting booth? "
From the "Words Are Important" file: I appreciate the good-humored attempt to allow a larger understanding of nostalgia as potentially nuanced and not flat. But I doubt we have license for it. Nostalgia, by definition, is narrow; its effectiveness necessitates an idealized perspective of the past, be it melancholic or rosey. It's because of it's potency for impairing both personal decisions and mass mythology that I think we ought not mess much with the word. "Don't drink and drive" is good counsel. So is "You can't move into a future shrouded in nostalgia". Ok for Hollywood and popcorn but not for rebuilding a nation. One more thought, re: "the political purposes of nostalgia". Since nostalgia is a concept, it has no purpose other than that to which a person or people might bend it, either unwittingly or intentionally. The question might better be "How do we attempt to justify our behavior and habits while under the influence of nostalgia?" Or "How does nostalgia impair me when I go to the voting booth? "