Some people say “those were the days” and talk about the past as a great time -- a simpler time, a more innocent time, without all the distractions and complications of modern life. Whenever I hear someone rambling on and on like that, I just shake my head and laugh. Let me tell you about modern times, or better yet, let’s call them “our times.” Before I talk about myself, let me tell you about someone else. John D. Rockefeller lived from 1839 to 1937. Those were some of the old times that other people called “the good times” -- mostly after the Civil War but before the Great Depression. To call Rockefeller a business success would be, shall we say, something of an understatement. Eventually, his company, Standard Oil, was broken up into 34 …show more content…
Their parents picked them up and drove off. “My GPS is so slow!” I overheard. Rockefeller would have to use a map, and he was dead by the time that GPS systems were even thought of. Cars were only invented in 1886 (or when Rockefeller was 47), yet they only went 16 miles per hour -- slower than an elephant! Today, our cars are faster, cheaper, and better in every way, as cars have reached top speeds of 270 miles per hour! After dinner, sensing that the rest of my family was bored, I shouted “Let’s fly to Europe!” Two hours later, we were at the airport boarding our flight. Just kidding! And yet, we very well could do that - and cross the Atlantic in roughly 5 hours. It would take Rockefeller a whole week to get there by a boat, just sitting around while he could have been cracking new business deals to add to his vast amount of wealth. As for flying, that was unavailable for most of his life, as the first trans-Atlantic passenger flights did not occur until the 1930s. So, were the old days really the good days? I’ve told you the story of one day. An ordinary day, but a great day. We do things now better and faster than we ever could before. And I bet my day isn’t too different from yours. People claim that the past was so much better. However if you look at individual things, now is much better in almost every aspect than then. If anyone asks me, my answer will be: our days are the greatest
When comparing the past and present together there are definitely many differences. Humans are constantly progressing and these new inventions or ideas have their advantages and disadvantages. Franz Kafka’s short story, “In The Penal Colony” and Annie Proulx’s article, “Inspiration? Head Down the Back Road, and Stop for the Yard Sales” both demonstrate the idea that holding onto the past is very beneficial but at the same time it’s best to let go and progress.
The laws are not the best back then but there was a lot of torture and pain even tho there was not as much stress and i wouldn't like the fact of its not that clean or easy back then some people would fight what i said but they would not find the best things today it would still be hard in this time and it could just be like back then just with different stuff and ways i'm not saying i don't like it now i'm just saying it could be easier back then instead of being in this time today i think i could live back in that time and do the things they did but it just sounds more funner and
Flappers, innovation, invention, prosperity, cars, industrialization, the Jazz Age. These are all words that come to mind when one thinks of the 1920’s in America. Many people believe it was a great time in American history, however these individuals are only seeing one side of the story. Yes, the 1920’s were a time of growth in some area’s of society, and were portrayed as a time that allowed people to be free and be themselves, a time where people could finally let loose. However, this could not be further from the truth. People lived in slums, multiple families packed into tiny houses, discrimination thrived, diseases spread uncontrollably. Those who were fortunate enough to avoid these problems because they were wealthy had to deal
The term ‘retro’ carries a pervasive, if somewhat imprecise meaning; gradually creeping into daily usage over the past thirty years with few attempts to define it: usually used to describe cultural predisposition and personal taste, carrying nostalgic associations. Scientific literature on nostalgia usually refer to nostalgia regarding the personal life. Smell, touch and music are strong evokers of nostalgia, with recollections of one’s past usually being important events, people one cares about and places where one many have spent time. Nostalgic preferences, the belief that the past was better than the present, has been linked to partisanship in memory. The definition of nostalgia has changed massively over time, as it was once being considered a medical condition similar to that of homesickness. However, nostalgia now is considered to be a maverick and
There is a tendency in our society, to romanticize the past, to mystify it to
As life goes on, things change. No one is sure when things changed, only that they have. I have never met a person that has no nostalgia for their past. During the Gilded age, Yeoman farmers had a nostalgia for their past rural lifestyle. Nostalgia will forever be embeded into human nature. Although the more modern farmers had “luxuries [that had] become the necessaries” and had “more comforts than the farmer had a few generations ago” (Carnegie), some farmers would rather be rural than city bound. The farmers were self sufficient and independent. As humans, we see our past as better than it was. We paint a distorted image of what our lives used to be like. In The City (1939), it shows a contrast between the pros and cons of city life. The film begins with the images of a 'remembered countryside', which supports the yeomen farmer nostalgia. “The town was ours and we were part of it [and] we never let our cities grow too big for us to manage” (The City (1939)). This was to reassure those who were reluctant to accept a city lifestyle over a rural one. Nostalgia always was and always will be a strong theme in human
Thinking back to all the struggle and hardship that others had to endure during the earlier century I am happy to say it is a blessing to be an American living today in this modern society free the discrimination, inequality and
When time would became good again there was still so much bad happening. Like when the pope told the people if they went and fought in war all of their sins would be forgiven.
Admittedly, this is me romanticizing a bit. Well, not a bit, a lot. I long for the times of the past, not so much so that I travel to that time (maybe in my dreams, but not in reality), like Owen Wilson's character in Woody Allen’s Magic in the Moonlight (though, compared to me, I’d say the dear man had a mild case of nostalgia, while I have a severe and
Now was nothing like the past. An evil ruler took over, killed a bunch of people, and now here we all were. A dystopian future where hatred was the only emotion and curiosity got you murdered.
It became a form of melancholy by being “a term employed to charge attachment to and affect for the past with being both politically reprehensive and empirically untenable” and a “longing for an earlier, simpler time” (Natali, 2004, p. 11).
I loved the free love of the seventies, no strings attached. Sex was a no-brainer. You wanted sex, you had sex, and moved on the next. There was no judgement about whether it was right or wrong. I miss the freedom of thought and action.
I think we need to slow down, take the good parts of the old days, leave the bad parts behind, and start to live moment to moment again - not so quickly - and look up and look around. - Billy Bob Thornton
The society, which had the blissful present, would have wonderful future. But the society, which had the anxieties in its present life would look back the past. The longing for the past was defined with the term ‘nostalgia’. According to Alan R. Hirsch, Nostalgia was a yearning for an idealized past: “Nostalgia: A Neuropsychiatric Understanding, a longing for a sanitized impression of the past” and the memories devoid of the negative emotions. The sense of nostalgia evoked through the memories: it contained the wonderful past days and the favorite incidents as well as the happenings which happened to be the energy to survive in the society. Not only the memories but the feelings and emotions also feed the minds and brought the nostalgic feel in the emotional state. It was human’s consciousness which would try to remember the ideal and favorable incidents of the past era and would try to year for the favorable incidents in
As human beings we like to look back and remember all the good things in our lives, which has made us able to cooperate with the times, when things were not as great. Furthermore, we like to imaging situations we would like to be a part of, when the grass seems greener on the other side. But unfortunately this kind of imagination can get out of hand, which is illustrated in the short story Number 40 by Sarah Butler from 2012.