Why People Look at the Past All Wrong and I HATE it
I feel like I have to get this off my chest before I explode. I am deeply sick of people who keep saying "Oh I miss the past" or "I want to have a "traditional" life" or the often repeated, "I want the values of the good old days back." I cannot express how I loathe these people. I somehow got one of these videos on my feed today and it just had me in a moment of pure rage.
They look at the "aesthetics" and the economy of which decade the most? Of course, the 1950s. Oh, the most overhyped decade that no one who makes these dumb IG or social media posts was even alive to know about it. Yet they seem to LOVE it.
Over and over, I hear about trad wives' influencers and smug unemployed male podcasters practically salivating at their idea of a perfect world. A picture-perfect husband who works one job that can support a two-story house in some suburban landscape with the picket fence paint just drying before a slew of newly married 20 to 21-year-olds moves in as quick as possible. Suddenly its sunshine every single day with good news all the time. Your neighbor who is automatically the best person you ever met comes over with Jello salad and a big smile. BBQs every weekend. The kids play outside without asking you too many questions. Every day these ladies online imagine themselves as the bombshell blonde wearing designer style dresses of the period every day without a smudge on their apron. The men imagining themselves enjoying a perfectly clean house without a care in the world and no challenges whatsoever.
Every day is paradise.
It sounds almost unbelievably cheesy right? Completely disconnected from reality. Cause...come on. Thats "Leave it to Beaver" tv show nonsense.
They look at the past completely wrong. If anything, this mindset is the biggest slap in the face to this decade. All you need to do; is to take even a moment to glance at it. Peel away the layers and see the 1950s was not just poodle skirts and cheesy infomercials. To boil it down to just "Oh the economy was great, so I want that" is so misguided because the 1950s as a whole SUCKED and was deeply complex. The 1950s was ridge and lacking in many things we have today, good luck finding any mental health support because that wasn't a widespread thing. Inequality, blatant racism, and sexism, you bet your bottom dollar it was as common as a blue sky. Oh, and let's not forgot another thorny subject. The entire world was still reeling from WW2. Depending on where you were, the recovery was a long and painful process. Even then the cold war was huge in the 50s. Absolutely ramped up paranoia was a thing.
The point is I want people to stop looking at the past to solve their problems because that is what people in 2025 are doing. The 1950s was not a golden period for most with complicated politics and a painful recovery process that we are STILL not over yet in more ways than one. WW2 will haunt us forever. Every single decade is marred by deep conflict but with great strides of people starting from the very bottom with people who pushed against unfathomable odds to make their voices heard.
Don't look at the past as your safety net, look at it as a guiding light for the future. We are capable of building a better world for everyone. No one wants the 1950s back. I guarantee you almost everyone (even these influencer people) if they went back in time for a few days, would jump right back to the present. The past is the past. Look to the future and demand that NO I don't want the "good old days" back. I want a future where everyone single person can flourish and be safe.