That's not nostalgia; those are facts. The facts for unionized working class life in the U.S.A. It is also a fact that after the free market was introduced, life expectancy in the FSU plumetted by a good ten years, prostitution and drug use exploded, savings were wiped out, and the common good was looted to the actual loss of most people.
Harkening back to a "golden time" may be endemic to the human race, but I don't remember my parents harkening back to the depression or the second world war, which was the period of their youth.
Joanna
James Heartfield wrote:
> Nostalgia is not specific to the Soviet Union, lots of Americans
> think that the past was preferable to the present, too.
>
> Which good old days? - various age groups' perceptions of past times
>
> American Demographics, April, 1996 by Diane Crispell
>
> Baby boomers take the rap for the return of "The Brady Bunch" and
> other signs of the decline of American popular culture. But
> they're not the only ones bitten by the nostalgia bug. Over half
> of adults of all ages think that things were better in the past
> than they are today, according to Roper Starch Worldwide of New
> York City. One-third think things are better now than yesterday,
> and 12 percent aren't convinced there's any difference. This
> hasn't always been the case. In 1974, despite disco, 54 percent of
> adults preferred the present over the past.
>
> The share of adults who think the "good old days" were better
> rises somewhat with age, from 52 percent of those under age 30 to
> 58 percent of those aged 45 and older. People with more education
> and money find yesterday less alluring. A lower-than-average 44
> percent of college graduates prefer the past over the present, as
> do 47 percent of those in professional and executive jobs and half
> of those with household incomes of $50,000 or more. It's no
> surprise that the societal leaders Roper calls Influentials are
> the most live-for-today types; just 38 percent prefer the past,
> while 49 percent vote against.
>
> Sixty-five percent of people who didn't graduate from high school
> yearn for the past, perhaps because their lives haven't turned out
> as they had hoped. Another group of adults who strongly prefer the
> past are those with children under age 8. Sixty-two percent of
> pooped parents say that some point in the past-presumably any
> point without rug rats--was superior to today's nonstop circus of
> diaper rash and helping with homework.
>
> Parents with young children are desperate for a change of pace.
> When asked what period they consider the epitome of the good old
> days, they choose the much-maligned 1970s. This reflects a common
> pattern. Most people look no further than their own youth to
> define the good old days. Boomers aged 30 to 44 split their vote
> for best era of the past between the critically acclaimed 1960s
> and the 1970s.
>
> Younger adults have a shorter time frame for comparison. Those
> under age 30 are almost as likely as young boomers to vote for the
> 1970s, but a slightly larger group, 24 percent, considers the
> 1980s the best of the bunch. To those who've been around longer,
> the 1980s are too close for comfort. Only 4 percent of those aged
> 45 and older think that the Reagan and Bush years were golden
> ones. Predictably, those aged 45 to 59 much prefer the 1950s and
> 1960s, while those aged 60 and older go for the 1940s and 1950s.
>
> Nostalgia won't sell everything. Kids of the 1990s have accepted
> tie-dye, but some things are best forgotten. Hopefully, we will
> never again see the short plaid bell-bottoms sported by the Bay
> City Rollers. Or their hair, either.
>
> Other Roper surveys reveal that nostalgia doesn't drive media
> behavior or hobby pursuits. People choose to read about, watch,
> and do things based on the "here and now." Yet flashes of the past
> are undoubtedly having an effect on certain purchases. Aesthetic
> value alone can't explain the resurgence of Troll dolls.
>
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>
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