Let Go of Nostalgia

Published by

Clarissa

February 8, 2016

People asked me why I consider Corey Robin to be irredeemably dumb. Here is the most recent example. The poor, dense fellow is imploring Hillary supporters to reconsider because:

I ask that you be open to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the world is changing, if only a little bit.

I mean, seriously. The world is changing (duh!) so the solution is to vote for a fellow whose every word, every idea, every suggestion is a nostalgic throwback to the pre-1978 heyday of the nation-state. The world is changing, so let’s pretend it isn’t, shut our eyes really tight, and repeat very loudly, “It isn’t true if I say it isn’t!”

I understand voting for Bernie if you honestly believe that we can travel back to 1968. But if you do recognize that the world is changing, the only reasonable response is to let go of the nostalgia and look towards the future, not the past.

Rate this:

15 responses to “Let Go of Nostalgia”

Dreidel

February 8, 2016

Sanders would have been no more electable in 1968 than McGovern was four years later. The Sixties were never on the verge of any “revolution,” except in the naive, semi-delusional minds of hyperexcited adolescents, and some of their equally delusional academic mentors.

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  February 8, 2016
  
  This isn’t about him personally. The policies that he advocates for belong to a world long gone. Blue-collar families where a single worker can keep everybody else, 60+% taxes on the rich, the businesses that do not flee overseas, the state as a guarantee of passable welfare for all – there was a time for all this but that time has passed.
  
  What I find frustrating is that instead of accepting that it’s gone and trying to figure out what to do next we are engaging in what amounts to drawn-out funeral rites. Trump promises imaginary walls at the border, Sanders promises a return to the reality of 50 years ago – this is all fantasy, not reality.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
thelyniezian

February 8, 2016

What I know about Bernie Sanders plus this criticism of him almost makes him seem like the American Jeremy Corbyn. Both idealistic, outspoken socialists, outsiders who got unexpected levels of support often from younger voters, but arguably belonging more in the past than the present.

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  February 8, 2016
  
  Yes, absolutely, you are spot on. They are very similar and their popularity testifies to the nostalgia people feel towards the past.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Stringer Bell

February 8, 2016

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/129463/hillaryland-usual-mess

Rumors of Clinton campaign being a mess. What the fuck is that loser Mark Penn doing in her campaign? Did she not learn anything from 2008?

LikeLike

Reply
1. Shakti
  
  February 8, 2016
  
  Again?
  
  Does he have blackmail material on her? How did such a fucking loser get asked back again and again to lose?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  1. Clarissa
    
    February 8, 2016
    
    Who is this fellow? I’ve never heard of him.
    
    LikeLike
    
    Reply
2. Dreidel
  
  February 8, 2016
  
  What’s Mark Penn doing back in Hillary’s campaign? Hopefully helping her to lose the nomination to Bernie. 🙂
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
3. Marc McKenzie
  
  February 8, 2016
  
  Mark Penn is not on Hillary’s team this time. She’s stayed far away from him.
  
  And the media has had the daggers out for Hillary since 1992, so of course they’re going to scream bloody murder about any hiccup on her campaign.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
mitchellporter

February 9, 2016

If support for Sanders is based on nostalgia, why is it coming from people under 30?

LikeLike

Reply
1. Clarissa
  
  February 9, 2016
  
  For the same reason that young people in Russia are extremely nostalgic for the USSR they never experienced. It’s easy to yearn for something you only know in the capacity of a fairy tale.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
2. TomW
  
  February 9, 2016
  
  The young people are nostalgic because young people realize that their parents and grandparents got a better deal in many respects. For example, my father had a really nice pension from his company, guaranteed payments until he and my mother both die and they both get social security in addition to that. I’m in my 40s and no one my age is getting that kind of deal for retirement, but at least we had sort of affordable college 20 years ago. Today’s 20 somethings aren’t getting a pension and they have had to pay through the nose and go into debt for college.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  1. Clarissa
    
    February 9, 2016
    
    It’s less “realize” than fantasize. Forty years ago, all the young women who are organizing for Bernie today would be lucky to get a crappy secretarial job somewhere.
    
    LikeLike
    
    Reply
  2. Shakti
    
    February 9, 2016
    
    I don’t really think young people experience anemoia.
    
    And really, this vision of the past depends on who your parents and grandparents are. My father doesn’t have a pension. My grandparents didn’t either and would have asked you “what is a pension?” I can’t be nostalgic for that past in America. I wouldn’t have grown up in the neighborhoods I grew up in. I wouldn’t have gone to the schools I went to. Even something as trivial as being left-handed would be a source of pain.
    
    So really it’s about who is most likely to help you preserve the nice things from the present and maybe the past while going forward into the future. How many people are you going to bring forward into the future? Nobody seems to say this explicitly.
    
    LikeLike
    
    Reply
    1. TomW
      
      February 9, 2016
      
      Agreed that women’s options were much more limited. My mother has said that secretary, nurse, and teacher were the only career options for her and most of her friends growing up in a rural area. My mother started out as a secretary and worked her way up into management. Unfortunately, that became a kind of trap for her; towards the end of her working life, her company became a horribly toxic place, but she felt she couldn’t leave because she didn’t have the sort of business degree she would need to get a similar job at a different company.
      
      And yes, the generous pension thing isn’t universal, but I think there are decent number of people whose parents or grandparents did have nice pension plans and those are almost entirely gone. My father’s company switched to a 401k system for younger workers at some point. Some of those younger workers might do better, but most of them won’t. For what it’s worth, my grandparents didn’t have those things either, my parents both did much better in terms of financial stability than their parents.
      
      LikeLike
      
      Reply