rambling about nostalgia

[redbird]

browngirl has an interesting post in which she points out the flaws in a certain kind of nostalgia, the sort that sees seatbelts and lead-free paint as threats to, um, something or other.

Somewhere in the comments is the observation that people who talk about the wonders of the family of the past tend to stop dead when asked to specify what year they're talking about. Small wonder.

People want to live in a hypothetical, broadly sketched, past with all modern conveniences. They want to be rid of seatbelt laws, but probably not to drive a 1950s car, even a brand new one, but without the air conditioning or the modern brake systems. They want to use rollerblades without helmets or kneepads, not the old-style roller skates you attached to your sneakers with a key. And, of course, they want the Internet, cheap long distance phone calls and affordable air travel, and such.

The past is a foreign country, and they don't have tourist facilities.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

My dislike of seatbelt laws has nothing to do with nostalgia about other eras or the perfect family or whatever. I always wore my seatbelt, and used to have functional seatbelts to wear. Now I have a driver's side seat-belt motor that's busted, and will take several hundred dollars to repair, and makes belting in a gigantic fuss that doesn't have to exist, except for seatbelt laws requiring passive restraint. In our other car, I have an explosive device pointed at my head at all times, and, given my height, may actively endanger my life in case of deployment. In various vehicles of friends I've sat in, the safety belts are so badly positioned that what will happen in an accident is the belt will break my neck. Being obligated to wear one of these belts does not make me noticeably safer. Safety belts are a force for good; seat belt laws are a mixed bag. Holding that to be true requires no nostalgia whatever.