> Doug wrote:
>
>> ...There's an ancient tendency - wonderfully analyzed in Raymond
>> Williams' Country & The City - to think there was a golden age a
>> generation or two ago, and things have gone all to hell since.
>> Williams traces it back in English poetry to Piers Plowman. Maybe it
>> has been a relentless downward spiral since the 13th century, but I
>> doubt it.
>
> If you had managed to survive into the later 14th century,
> when Piers was written, you too would have looked back
> at the 13th as a pretty damn golden age.
that's a good point, actually.
picking up on carrol's point, this tendency in the west can be traced back to the garden of eden story, which is to say a long way back -- at least 10th century bce, and the story's probably much much older than that. interestingly, though, many of the biblical writers understood the early behavior of the hebrews/israelites as negative examples -- they're "stiff-necked" and always doing stupid things like making golden calves.
it's a relentless downward spiral since the man ate that damned fruit.
j