It's strange isn't it, many people you encounter in life love nothing better than to view the past through rose tinted spectacles. Even modern marketing is often aimed squarely at convincing people that some shiny new product is based on "ancient wisdom". New-age entrepreneurs often make fortunes from convincing people that their products and services are based on a centuries old "Native Indian" recipe and most religions sit upon a foundation of perceived authority based on nothing more than longevity (and perhaps dead languages and elaborate hats).
Why is it that some people automatically feel that the past was better? Perhaps it's because the past is safe, it's past after all and because of that is free to be interpreted any way you like at no cost. The future on the other hand is scary, no one knows what will happen, you only need to look how 2020 has panned out to see that, the past is safe and the future is scary, the only real toehold we have on anything is the present moment. So, the next time you hear someone banging on about how great things were in the past remind them of a few vital statistics (i.e. facts) about the present which put the skids under their thesis..
- The likelihood of a violet death has never been lower that now
- Child mortality is at its lowest level ever now.
- Ten years ago half the people in developing countries lived below the poverty line, today it's 12%
- Sharing ideas has never been easier, the World's information is available to anyone with a phone
- Life expectancy is at it's highest levels ever
Of course, there is no law of physics that says in terms of wellbeing, we can't go back as well as forward! Global pandemics are a blip on that trajectory and climate change may well prove to be somewhat more of a cliff! However, it's probably safe to say that it's very difficult to unlearn things and regardless of a few steps back, on the scale of civilizations we can well afford a bit more optimism about the present now and again.
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