During my daily perusal of Instapundit I found this article from Cracked.
I remember Cracked from back in the day; back when when they were a MAD Magazine wanna be; bad art and all. Apparently things have changed.
I really have no quibble with most of what the article says; they're right, for the most part. In the section about how things are so expensive they mention how most families have two cars, unlike the old days. Yeah, but most families also have two jobs, unlike the old days.
Then we get to Music.
The article is correct; We know Beethoven from his time, but not the hundreds of his contemporaries who were writing music that was not as memorable. Even in the early days of recorded music, some 78 RPM records are worth hundreds of dollars; others... less so. Some of what was popular in the 1950's is forgotten today.
The number one song from 1969 was the Archies. Why? Because they had a Saturday morning cartoon.
Like the Beatles. And the Monkees. Okay, the Monkees was live actors, but how much closer to a cartoon could the show have been? And What about the Banana Splits? Who knew they had a website? Great for a cold splash of nostalgia!
But I digress.
The one point that this article could make and doesn't is that our imperfect memories always remember only the good times, and then compare that to our current situation. And nowadays always comes off second best. Our parents remember the Great Depression and WWII as the good old days for crying out loud.
And our kids will probably remember today's era as the good old days when they are adults. Who could become nostalgic about today for God's sake? Lousy economy, rotten popular music, Global warming burying half the country with feet of snow; seriously, who COULD remember this as the good old days?
I remember Cracked from back in the day; back when when they were a MAD Magazine wanna be; bad art and all. Apparently things have changed.
I really have no quibble with most of what the article says; they're right, for the most part. In the section about how things are so expensive they mention how most families have two cars, unlike the old days. Yeah, but most families also have two jobs, unlike the old days.
Then we get to Music.
The article is correct; We know Beethoven from his time, but not the hundreds of his contemporaries who were writing music that was not as memorable. Even in the early days of recorded music, some 78 RPM records are worth hundreds of dollars; others... less so. Some of what was popular in the 1950's is forgotten today.
The number one song from 1969 was the Archies. Why? Because they had a Saturday morning cartoon.
Like the Beatles. And the Monkees. Okay, the Monkees was live actors, but how much closer to a cartoon could the show have been? And What about the Banana Splits? Who knew they had a website? Great for a cold splash of nostalgia!
But I digress.
The one point that this article could make and doesn't is that our imperfect memories always remember only the good times, and then compare that to our current situation. And nowadays always comes off second best. Our parents remember the Great Depression and WWII as the good old days for crying out loud.
And our kids will probably remember today's era as the good old days when they are adults. Who could become nostalgic about today for God's sake? Lousy economy, rotten popular music, Global warming burying half the country with feet of snow; seriously, who COULD remember this as the good old days?
Our kids won't remember that Uncle John spent 6 months without a job, and won't recall which piece of dreck it is that beats Toy Story 3 For Best Picture. Hell, the song that will be the most popular from the 'Oughts probably never even made it to the radio top 40, if history is any indicator.
And it usually is.
So kick back and enjoy the Good Old Days now; why wait until when you can only do it in what's left of your memory?
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