20140319.0802

I would like to reject nostalgia.
It does no good
Locking me
And others
Into a past that was not nearly so good as we remember it being

It was not fun at the time
Whatever might be said of it after
Some of us kept track of such things
Things may not be better now
But that does not mean they were good then

For those for whom things were good
I feel pity
Those who say high school was the best four years of life
For what do they have to hope?

For those who have generational nostalgia
Who say "Things were better back in my day"
I have some scorn
Things were not better
The parents of today's collegians lived under constant fear of nuclear attack
Is this better?
Their parents saw the horrors of the Second World War
Was that better?
Their parents saw the horrors of the First and the failure of its promise
To be the War to End All Wars
Was that better?
Rape was legal if you were married to her
Was it better?
Racism was legal if you were white
Was it better?
And the language of the people was just as filthy then as now
Even if what counted as filth was different
Or else whence FUBAR and SNAFU?
What of the interesting history of the word jazz?
And further back was no better.
The Prohibitionists were not railing against nothing
Even if some of their suppositions were asinine
Not all of them were
Was it better?

Was. It. Better?

No, it was not better.
It was worse for most if not
In fact
For all
For I am made better when things are better for those around me
And things are better for those around me now than the day
Some claim as their own

The backward look is not done with perfect vision.
Before is in red-shift as we move away from it
Science supports the rosy-tinted lenses
But few of us run the calculations for ourselves
Or can