Dissecting 'The Good Old Days'

How many times have you heard conversations about "The Good Old Days?"

I lost count decades ago.

(Photo: When I was a one-year-old. Good times) 

The Racial Component

Chances are if you live in the South or parts of the Midwest, you fly a Confederate flag and talk longingly about the good old days in Dixie before the Yankees came. It's a generational thing. Likely, the environment you grew up in those states was rife with Confederate Battle flags on cars, trucks, buildings, and clothing.

Obviously, the white southern version of the good old day's clashes with the reality of slavery and the hell African Americans lived though.

Dissecting the Good Old Days

Social scientists tell us that over time, our memory of an event changes so that we are more likely to remember the positive aspects than the negative ones (referred to as Fading Affect Bias - FAB).

As a parent I understand FAB perfectly. I have three sons (all grown up) but I remember their infant/toddler days with nostalgia. If I want to be honest those days of dirty diapers, endless tantrums, and frequent fighting they exhausted me. Yet, when I see pictures of their chubby little faces it makes me long for when they were little.

This bias isn't news by any means. Ancient Greeks coined the term nostalgia a few thousand years ago. Psychologists believe FAB exists so we can keep a positive outlook on life.

Have you ever remembered a movie from your childhood as one of your favorites, only to see it again and wonder "what was I thinking?"

According to Psychology Today our brains don't like uncertainty. That's why millions of Americans have had such a struggle with the Pandemic. We can't predict when it will end.

However, when we remember the past, all uncertainty is removed. We got the job. We found a life partner. We bought the house. We graduated.

By comparison, the present is scary and open-ended. Part of our longing for those Good Old Days is that we know everything turned out okay, or even if it didn't, we know we got through it.

Nostalgia for the good old days will never entirely go away. Its why artists have written songs about it since the beginning of time. It's only when our longing for days gone by keeps us from enjoying the present that we need to rethink how we're remembering the past.

Guess what? It turns out great when we realize we're living the good old days right now.