Those Were The Days My Friend

Arethusa, of Stalkers Not Allowed (if you don't have her blogrolled- and read her regularly- you are an idiot), has an interesting, if at times somewhat light look at the 'Good Ole Days.'

In a well written and concise post, she reminds her readers that the 'good ole days' that we often pine for (ourselves included!) weren't always so good. In a particularly biting passage, she writes:

Perhaps I am being something of an upstart, but I really don't cotton to this romanticisation of the past, particularly for the reasons it is done. Yes, I suppose it would be nice if your kids start wearing longer skirts and looser sweaters again, and could go out late at night or...well you know what it was like better than I do. And I don't wish to sound patronising or to imply that such behaviour and values weren't good ones, but they went hand in hand with blatant sexism and all sorts of (to me) odd ideas about sex. A D.H. Lawrence novel, interspersed with anti-semitic remarks, causes a ruckus because omg, he wrote frankly about sex!

Arethusa of course is right. We all have a tendency to look back at those time when things were less complex (read: more easily controlled) in a wistful and longing way. We also can be very selective about what it is we select and what it is we ignore about the 'good ole days.' She goes on to say,

I could go on and on. It's so en vogue to discuss society's "inarguable downslide" into the abyss, and woe to us all it will soon be bedlam. It is quite en vogue to focus on all that has gone wrong with racial diversity and feminism, and whatever progressive movement has knocked down the barriers that kept so many classes of people cushy in their isolated existance. But you know a lot of good has been done and I wish the story about 13 year olds giving BJ's would not totally eclipse those facts to such a degree, that people would yearn for the days when a Japanese woman has to ask a lady at the counter if she's allowed to use the rest room because it says "whites only". Why not keep a more balanced, "big picture" perspective? Things weren't perfect then, and things aren't perfect now, let's just deal with the problems we're facing and stop whining.

With those few words, Arethusa adresses the crux of a contemporary problem: We have a tendency to view problems as easily resolved by simply talking about them. This is no matter of nuance or small import. We do have a tendency to want to have matters resolved by simply talking or wishing them away (which in our view, is half the problem). Arethusa is quite clear:

As a footnote I'll acknowledge when people express such views they may be merely wishing for certain specific value systems and ideas, and not the whole caboodle, but why don't they say that? I may not be able to bite my tongue (finger) the next time I go to a blog and see another lament of how our parents must be weeping at the state of the world.

Arethusa is more than willing to roll up her sleeves and go to work, addressing the issues that need attention. She doesn't sugar coat anything and she won't misuse or mislead to service an agenda.

It is also true that Arethusa does not seem to give some extreme crossed boundries proper perspective (the sexualization of 13 year olds is a glaring example. While racism is of course a terrible condition, in order of priorities triage, the sexualization of children is far more egregious). In fairness to Arethusa, her piece was about perpective of a different kind- that of viewing the past through rose colored glasses. We would like to think Arethusa shares our own- and many others- outrage at what amounts to the exploitation of children.

Arethusa's remarks struck a chord with us. A few years ago, on a business trip abroad, we ran across a few people who yearned for the 'good ole days' of communism- law and order, less chaos and more 'predictability,' as our host reminded us. We proceeded to ask our host if he missed the late night knocks on the door, the people taken away and never seen or heard from again. We asked if he missed the communist economy- shortages of everything from TP to fruit to shoes to sanitary napkins. Needless to say, our host had nothing to say after that.

Arethusa's post is a good one. Read it and think about it.