Modern obsessions
It's true, we are in general, a society obsessed with what has already passed. We live descrying our present and yearning for the culture, manners and dress of the past. Designers copy styles of the past, and we call it 'retro', we love the romance of everything post WW1. Art Deco, Art nouveau, anything in fact but futuristic! Not technology of course, when it comes to our technology we want the latest and greatest, the smaller the better. Ipods, Laptops, palm tops, mobile phones, you name it we want it small.
So why do we cry for retro? Why do we wish for styles of the past? Is it because our future isn't as rosy as one we liked to imagine. Once, mostly during the 60's and 70's we longed for space exploration, for futuristic images and life styles, because probably naively we thought as the future in a positive light. Hunger would be vanquished, peace would reign and knowledge abound. Lives would be lived in space, on far away planets and in space stations and by 2006 we'd all live in peace. Then came the 80's and we realised that those were just pipe dreams. Recension eclipsed the happy ideas of our future and we were suddenly acquainted with our own humble mortality, our planets sickness and the possibility that sooner or later we'd all die of pollution. So now we live afraid of our own planet, trying desperately to cure the already far reaching environmental crisis and straining for hope with dreams of past days.
Not to mention that those wonderful days of the past were filled with decent law abiding people, the crime rate was lower, marriages stayed strong and children respected their elders. In fact everything was much less contaminated, nations were filled with cheerful, positive people who weren't cynical and sarcastic. Innocence reigned amongst the majority, life seemed sweeter and everything was new. Life was filled with discovery, everything was an adventure. The planet was big and everything was mysterious.
Are these the reasons why we long for the days of our ancestors? Maybe the reasons are too varied to truly understand them all, and we should just accept the modern obsession for the past.
So why do we cry for retro? Why do we wish for styles of the past? Is it because our future isn't as rosy as one we liked to imagine. Once, mostly during the 60's and 70's we longed for space exploration, for futuristic images and life styles, because probably naively we thought as the future in a positive light. Hunger would be vanquished, peace would reign and knowledge abound. Lives would be lived in space, on far away planets and in space stations and by 2006 we'd all live in peace. Then came the 80's and we realised that those were just pipe dreams. Recension eclipsed the happy ideas of our future and we were suddenly acquainted with our own humble mortality, our planets sickness and the possibility that sooner or later we'd all die of pollution. So now we live afraid of our own planet, trying desperately to cure the already far reaching environmental crisis and straining for hope with dreams of past days.
Not to mention that those wonderful days of the past were filled with decent law abiding people, the crime rate was lower, marriages stayed strong and children respected their elders. In fact everything was much less contaminated, nations were filled with cheerful, positive people who weren't cynical and sarcastic. Innocence reigned amongst the majority, life seemed sweeter and everything was new. Life was filled with discovery, everything was an adventure. The planet was big and everything was mysterious.
Are these the reasons why we long for the days of our ancestors? Maybe the reasons are too varied to truly understand them all, and we should just accept the modern obsession for the past.
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