The dark side of the golden age thinking

Category:

General Contents

There are people that find difficult to cope with the present and erroneously believe, if they could escape from the usual refrain of daily horrors (unemployment, wars, global warming, nuclear threats, terrorism, etc.) and be happier, only if they could have lived in an early time. A time in the golden age era.




Gee, my life would be so much better if I just could live in a past

In reality, their thinking it is more of a nostalgia. And this kind of nostalgia is denial, denial of a painful present.

These people see those days (in which themselves did not live personally,) through rose-colored glasses. Their misconception that a different period of history is better than the one they live in today, is a defect of the imaginary. Their romantic imaginary. A falsely reproduction of the imagination due mostly, at their personal sufferings, their fears and by their own anxieties.

Indeed when looking back at a particular period, they tend to focus instead solely on positive experiences (blocking out the negative ones) lived through films and history books which do not always reflect those grim realities experienced daily by the people who really tested them.

"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us"

Emperor Turhan - Babylon 5
(Written by J. Michael Straczynski)

The only problem with the past, is that they were not so golden

In fact, those gold ages had their dark sides. If we could just travel back into any particular period of history, we will see that people's lives were most of the times filled with miseries.

Population Reducing Catastrophes

Famines:

• 1272, 1277, 1283, 1292, 1311
• Great Famine of 1315-1317

Wars and civil disorders:

• Hundred Years War (1337-1453)
• local warfare caused destruction of crops, of houses, and of life in general

Pestilence and Disease:

• The Black Death (1347-1352)
• epidemic attributed to bubonic plague caused death of one-third to one-half of European population

If they were lucky enough to reach adulthood (because of the high infant mortality,) the life expectancy of an average man because of pestilences, famines, violent deaths, continuous wars and any other forms of natural or man-made calamities, was quite shortened.

Life expectancy variation over time

(wikipedia.org)

In short, their life span usually was not over 40 years old... I wonder, who is crazy enough to want to live in a past not so golden?

Shop Amazon