The Good Old Days That Never Were
Nostalgia as Myth-Making — How the Past Is Romanticized to Resist Change
Everyone loves to reminisce about “the good old days.”
Simpler times. Stronger families. Better morals. Lower prices.
It’s a comforting story — and that’s exactly what makes it dangerous.
Nostalgia isn’t inherently bad. Remembering the past fondly can ground us, remind us of values worth preserving, and connect generations through shared memory. But when nostalgia becomes myth, it starts to distort reality. It turns the past into a weapon against the present.
The psychology of nostalgia
At its core, nostalgia is about longing for stability. When the world feels uncertain or overwhelming, our minds reach backward for safety. We don’t remember things as they truly were — we remember how they felt. That emotional memory becomes more powerful than fact.
Psychologists call this rosy retrospection: the tendency to recall past experiences as more positive than they actually were. It’s a form of self-protection, shielding us from anxiety about the unknown future by idealizing what’s familiar.
The myth of a golden age
Every generation imagines a “better time” just out of reach. The Victorians longed for a pre-industrial purity. The mid-20th century idealized the 1950s as wholesome and prosperous — ignoring segregation, sexism, and social conformity. Even today, many long for a time before “everything got so complicated,” forgetting that those complications often came from expanding rights, diversity, and visibility.
The “good old days” are a cultural mirage. They comfort those who feel left behind by change while subtly implying that progress is the problem. This nostalgia becomes political: a myth that says if we could only go back, we could make everything right again.
Why the myth endures
Because change is uncomfortable. Because identity feels safer when it’s anchored to something old. Because stories of decline are easier to tell than stories of transformation. Myths of the past give people villains and victims, heroes and harmony — even when none of it was that simple.
The truth beneath the longing
When we look honestly, we find that what people miss isn’t necessarily the era itself but the sense of belonging they once felt within it. The past feels “better” because we knew where we stood. The future feels frightening because it asks us to redefine who we are.
So maybe the answer isn’t to go backward at all — but to build a world that gives people new reasons to feel belonging, purpose, and security.
The real golden age
The good old days were never as good as we remember. But the best days — the ones worth working toward — are still ahead. When we release nostalgia’s illusions, we can start building the kind of world we keep pretending we already had.