Way of the Mind

It’s common to hear comments about the Good Old Days ™. The specifics vary, but, ultimately, they say this: things were better in the old days.

Why does this happen? In part, due to nostalgia, and, in part ,due to fear (and resentment) of change. Another reason is lousy memory: we tend to remember the good parts, and forget the bad ones.

Well, for those who say that “things were better back then”, I give you two pages of an American magazine from 1955. Click on the picture below to see it in its original size.

Even though it looks like a joke now, it wasn’t comedy, at the time. It was real. The world was like that. People were like that.

Now, tell me that “nothing’s improved”, that “things were better before”. Tell em that the human race, with all its faults, hasn’t evolved. Tell me that “things are the same, or worse”. Tell me that “we’re growing more and more immoral“. That the solution to mankind’s problems would be to “return to the values of old”.