What have we lost?

[guydarryl]

Recent question from Dave (DSJR) about where I was bought up got me thinking (ok it is Friday and I am just back from the pub )

Any way, I have a very strong memory of cycling in to town on a Sunday to get a newspaper for my mum (only shop open in my home town on a Sunday was the newsagents, 10.00 - 12.00) and stopping by the the war memorial as the remembrance Sunday ceremony was was about to start. A car driver was stopped by veterans and made to wait during the silence. Only fifty years ago, but the driver would probably run the veterans over now and get away with it

"Progress" has resulted in people having less time/freedom - discuss

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Time changes things. Do we have a ceremony for the end of the Napoleonic wars, no why, because it is too long ago, it is history. WW1 especially and now WW2 are sinking into the history books. Soon there will be no one alive who was fighting in WW2. OK other wars and skirmishes since but they don't merit this.

60 years is a long time, yet within my memory. Soon the baby bulge as they called it, all the troops coming home and making up for lost time, will be on the way out. Our time of memory is the 1960's, what will that show in the history books.

People always seem to think the present is worse, and in some ways it is. BUT in reality we are much better off in most ways now.

[Lotus Seven S]

What we have lost is our youth and the uncorrupted appetite the young have. This loss is irreplaceable and in a sense makes us redundant. And what is left is a constant background sense of mourning, regret and despair, which can be temporarily postponed by going down the pub, putting on a record or shouting at the dog.

What the world has lost is patience and naivety, which only adds to our diffuse sense of regret and despair.

All this can be clearly seen in the music industry, where abundance degrades meaning.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/ ... -listening

And for an example of the sheer cynicism we music lovers are victims of - try this:

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-probl ... uzak-pelly

[CN211276]

Where music is concerned I think we have gained since lossless streaming came into being. There was a lot of great music in the 60s 70s and 80s, far too much for me to take in and purchase. I now have access to it and being a traditionalist play albums in full. I am not one for play lists. Because hardly anyone buys the physical media anymore it means that bands have to come out and play, which after all is what it is all about. I seem to be going to more gigs than ever before and am being selective.

On the subject I have recently joined the Facebook group Cardiff past and present which is fascinating and of a lot of interest. I would recommend this to anyone in respect of locations of their youth.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

What we have lost is our youth and the uncorrupted appetite the young have. This loss is irreplaceable and in a sense makes us redundant. And what is left is a constant background sense of mourning, regret and despair, which can be temporarily postponed by going down the pub, putting on a record or shouting at the dog.

What the world has lost is patience and naivety, which only adds to our diffuse sense of regret and despair.

All this can be clearly seen in the music industry, where abundance degrades meaning.

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/ ... -listening

And for an example of the sheer cynicism we music lovers are victims of - try this:

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-probl ... uzak-pelly

This is not my world, every new day is a gift.

[joe]

I think that the old rosy-coloured specs come into play a lot when people hark back to the 'good old days'. I used to have a tape of my mother and various aunts, recorded in the early 1970s, reminiscing about how wonderful everything was back in the 1930s. At one point, they talk about a neighbour whose husband would knock her about, get put in prison, come out and knock her about again, and another neighbour who couldn't afford shoes for her children. I'm sure some sense of community has gone since then, but so has a lot of bad stuff too.

Even my daughter has started complaining about 'kids today'!

[Lotus Seven S]

This is not my world, every new day is a gift.

Yes!

But when we risk losing something, it gains in value.

Scarcity trumps abundance every time.

being a traditionalist play albums in full. I am not one for play lists.

Again, scarcity trumps abundance.

[alfer]

Trumping?

[ArseHats]

I think that the old rosy-coloured specs come into play a lot when people hark back to the 'good old days'. I used to have a tape of my mother and various aunts, recorded in the early 1970s, reminiscing about how wonderful everything was back in the 1930s. At one point, they talk about a neighbour whose husband would knock her about, get put in prison, come out and knock her about again, and another neighbour who couldn't afford shoes for her children. I'm sure some sense of community has gone since then, but so has a lot of bad stuff too.

Even my daughter has started complaining about 'kids today'!

Good post.
Additionally. I would imagine that incidents of casual sexism, racism, homophobia and the mistreatment of children have all reduced somewhat.
Good old days...? Depends who you were.

And your daughter is in good and long-standing company...
"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise."
Socrates (c400BC)

[Rectified]

nostalgia plays a massive part in my life, i have numerous things in my home from the 70's. See i was happiest in my life when i was a young un & have obviously grown up to see the changes i did not like. I could go visit where i grew up & clearly see the change, in fact its a complete shit hole nowadays.

I also like to do things the old fashioned way & could easily live my life without a computer, but what is stopping me doing that? simply the fact that everything in geared up around on line consumer activities etc making it very very hard.. I cannot remember the last time i got an actual hand written letter from a friend through my letter box. All the small shops have closed down where i live. The country is a ferkin disgrace, The TV is nothing but shit. Straight for my old Gerry Anderson UFO, The Prisoner, The Avengers etc recordings.. Cos its part of my on going escape from a the age i now live [Put Up With]