After reading Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker I've come to realize how important it is to celebrate the progress humanity has made in the past few centuries. Too many people feel things are getting worse. But on almost every measurable outcome things are improving worldwide and in our nation: US crime, infant mortality worldwide, extreme poverty worldwide, teenage pregnancies US, childhood obesity US, deforestation in Brazil is down, extinction rates are falling, wars are less frequent, children's IQ is improving for reasons unclear, etc etc.
And yet nostalgia abounds. It's suddenly occurred to me how dangerous nostalgia is. Hitler utilized nostalgia for a largely mythical German Aryan past, resulting in the genocide of Jews and other minorities. Brexit was partially fueled by nostalgia for a simpler time, and may lead to a serious economic downturn in the UK in March if no deal is reached. "Make America Great Again" plays on people's nostalgia for ~1950s, and manifests as Nationalism, anti-immigrant, pro-Christian. The Lost Cause movement (which preposterously re-imagines the American South battling for states' rights as opposed to preservation of slavery) also plays on nostalgia, with the ultimate intent of perpetuating suppression of Southern blacks. Nostalgia is a very effective tool of demagogues, and is closely tied to racism.
Who's nostalgic? I'd proffer the following groups are more susceptible: People that are struggling financially, especially if they're not doing as well as their parents did. People who aren't respected in society. Older people, perhaps uncomfortable with the pace of change, or perhaps looking upon their childhoods with rose-tinted glasses. People who live in places of decline, i.e. many rural places. People who live in a country that is or is perceived to be declining (pre-WWII Germany, the American South, UK, US).
I've been trying to gently correct people when they say something nostalgic. I tell them "Actually crime goes down every year." "Actually kidnapping by a stranger is now exceedingly rare." "Actually the world is rapidly improving on almost any measurable outcome." If I'm talking to a patient and have some good news to report, such that their condition is now treatable thanks to a particular medical advance, I also remind them that the world is always getting better. It's the perfect way to try to help people become more progressive in their thinking, and it doesn't sound at all political, so it gets past their instinctive defenses.
