Nostalgia or "Living on the detritus of your ancestors"

[Sojourner]

At 04:48 PM 7/10/97 -0400, Sherwood, Harrison wrote:
>>From: 	ben.greenberg at hwy1.com
>
>>If I may delurk for a moment...
>>
>>Why stop at the exact moment we're living in right now. Why not nostalgia
for
>>events that haven't occured yet. It disappears up its own aperture and comes
>>right out the other end. Kinda like having a rocket land on your head and
>>then
>>you hear it.
>
>Ooooh, this is _good_! 
>
>My little daughter, age 5, and I were talking at the dinner table last
>night, about TV shows that we share in common. She was quite
>flabbergasted to learn that many of her favorite cartoon shows were
>around when I was a little kid--but that others weren't. (The two shows
>under discussion were Scooby-Doo and Freekazoid, if you're keeping
>score.)
>

I found this post to be very thought provoking, to the point where I found
myself thinking about it long after I had gone home from work (work yes, in
a small-town library, but not AS a librarian).  

I would like to add my own analysis, which is not Mr. Pynchon's, nor is it
in allusion to his works per se.


>The thought occurred to me that when I was her age and a bit older, TV
>was a _very_ new medium, and that it had already undergone an enormous
>series of visual stylistic changes. When _I_ was a tyke in the
>mid-Sixties, you could really _tell_ that a ten-year-old show was old:
>it would be in black-and-white, the video would be crappy, the sound
>bad, etc. It just _looked_ old. And there was no such thing as a
>twenty-year-old show. But young Emily, tack-sharp though she may be,
>can't tell--from looking at any rate--a Seventies Hanna-Barbera cartoon
>from a Nineties one. 
>
>And the more I think about it, the harder it is for _me_ to tell a
>Seventies record from a Nineties one, or a book or a film or a dance or
>a haircut or a shirt or a...a...thought.
>

I think almost everyone here would agree that this is the case.  Every
major city has a "classic rock" station, a (the former WCXR 105.9 in DC)
station where 60's-70's rock and roll is played, a station where Woodstock
artists' music is played, a station where that culture and its music is
represented.  They always exist.  

I live in one college town and I work in another, and betwixt the two of
them and the kids in high school I know, at least half of the music
listened to them was made before they were born (they being 25 yrs old and
younger).  It is not uncommon to see Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eagles etc. CDs
to be heard regularly at their parties, to be seen in their collections, to
be played on their radio stations they prefer.  Shows, not just including
cartoons but others which were primetime favorites back then are in regular
syndication, with a regular following.  VH-1 is a channel which might have
an "easy listening/adult contemporary" theme to it, but I would say that
half of its videos and shows feature this "classic rock" image and culture,
with old Dick Cavett shows, constant re-runs of the MOVIE Woodstock etc.

We all know that kids today wear tie-dyes, go to rock "festivals", embrace
the Woodstock II, etc.  Nobody calls themselves a "hippy" anymore, but the
clothes they were remind you of "hippy" clothes.

In other words, I thoroughly agree.

>The insight sent me off into a reverie about culture-death and the cycle
>of nostalgia. I mean, shit, maybe it's already happened. Maybe when that
>nostalgia-flywheel got spinning, that was It: End of Discussion. It gets
>increasingly hard for _me_ to see a way out of it: Once a culture starts
>feeding on its own detritus and finding the fare delicious, is it
>possible once again to return to a state of vigorous growth and
>originality? Can you get the snake's tail out of its mouth?
>
>Or when I hear the word "culture" should I reach for my gun?
>>

This does present an interesting challenge.  We all have noticed this
"recycling" of culture, this recycling of everything that a culture stood
for, from its acknowledgement and legitimization of drug use to its music
to advocating "peace" and understanding.  How many could imagine a PETA or
a Greenpeace or a Fur is Murder or a mainstream vegetarianism without the
"60's"?

But it also seems like its faded, cheap and commercialized.  Kids, culture,
music et al (anyone thinking of bill Clinton?) are embracing the token
signs of the "60's", yet it does not seem like this is the 60's.  Aside
from the political events being different (aka no Vietnam War), it still
doesn't feel like this is the "60's" does it?  You can say oh this is
different or XX is different, but that is missing the point.

What I feel is going on is that this nation is still in search of values
for itself.  Not the political speak of "family values" or "traditional
values", but actually what DOES this country believe in?  What do we stand
for?  There are many who advocate "PC" values, which when boiled down, come
to the root of "everyone is OK, everyone should be treated the same,
everyone is equal".  Sounds good, and in some ways it is.  But as many
people find out, PCism tends to anger and infuriate you.  You will agree
with them that it is hillbilly nonsense to deny a man or woman a job
because of the amount of melatonin in their skin, but you might get angry
when a person is hired for any reason BUT their ability to do a job (trust
me, I work for the gov't, and we're FULL of white incompetent workers).
You might agree with the PCers that a person who does not have the use and
coordination of their limbs deserve the right to enter and move about a
building freely, but you might get angry when you are told that you cannot
only NOT smoke in that building, but that you cannot even smoke a cigarette
on the physical PROPERTY of that company/building/institution.  Or perhaps
it makes you angry that a person with ADD has less responsibilites than
yourself at work, or that they are permitted a 10 minute nap every hour,
etc. etc.

This nation is casting about for values.  Do I agree that people should be
treated for who they are, not WHAT they are?  Of course.  That's why I
support access to buildings for the disabled and giving people equal access
regardly of race, creed or color.  That's why I support a person's right to
express themselves, and to eat or not eat other sentient creatures, or to
not have to second-hand smoke if they choose not to.

I realize that this is going to provoke about a million and one long and
unrelated to TRP replies and posts, so I will say what I have to say then
head for the hills.

I see a direct correlation between pre-WWI, the 1920's, the GD and WWII,
the 50's, then the 60's countering the "50's", and subsequent cultural
value shifts ever since.  The Victorians were smashed in WWI, the
intellectuals took over, saved the country from the GD, built up our
nation's industries in WWII and post, and the anti-intellectual
anti-Victorian backlash of the 60's, and then its degradation and collapse
into the 70's, provoking the nation to shift its values, still casting,
still casting, finding that materialism perhaps would stop the degradation,
until it burst of its own rotten weight into the 1990's.

And here we are, the 60's inspired us, but it failed.  The 50's and WWII
told us what it meant to be powerful, which we liked, but we didn't like
the price it cost us.  In the 70's we gave up and said perhaps only our own
personal pleasure could save us, but it didn't.  Like the rhythmic
"migraine" (re: Jules) of disco we discarded the imperialism of the
WWII/50's, the "moral" directions of the 60's, and then found that the 70's
left us with a dirty hangover and ugly clothes.  So we buckled down in the
80's to the pursuit of capitalism, and regained our strength, perhaps the
strongest we'd been since WWII, only it was a dry and hollow tasting
victory.  Too many of us were hurt for the gain of too few, and now,
without even an enemy to propel our forward momentum, our enemies have
become everything which makes us different -- ie the PC "revolution".  And
so, we are recycling ever more quickly the values we cherished from our
past, seeking, desperately seeking for us to find common ground on an equal
and fair basis with everyone, not just the people in this country.  

To me this explains our increasing hostility towards China, why many of us
feel so "relieved" to find an enemy to oppose.  Their human rights
violations, exploitation of labor, their occupation of Tibet, their new
sovreignty over Hong Kong etc.  They still use that tired banner of
communism, but now even communism won't divide us.  If this were any decade
in the past, we'd be maneuvering to make an arch enemy out of China, to
rant and rail from every newspaper and government pulpit at their evilness.
 The only problem is, even our President won't do it.  He smiles and grins
and mumbles a few words and then MFN status keeps going through and then
nobody says anything.  Sure, the conservative screamers and newspapers rant
and rail about how he "sold" the presidency, but most Americans don't care.
 Apathy.  The only way to get a rise out of an American is to discriminate,
but as long as you don't, an American won't care.  I know SO many kids in
school (college) and I say why are you in school?  What are you studying?
The end result almost always boils down to 1) my parents expect it of me
and 2) it is so I can get a job.

Do you hear this?

I have a job.  I have had many many jobs.  I have no college degree (ONCE
AGAIN I AM NOT A LIBRARIAN) yet I outrank many college-educated people in
my job.  When I've gone to look for new jobs, it is no problem for me.
Why?  Because I have experience.  I have skills.  Not vocational skills
either, but old fashioned JOB skills.  I know how to handle an interview.
I can write a successful resumé.  I can even spell resumé with the é.  I
don't misspell "misspell" and I speak English fluently and professionally.
My aunt is a teacher (working on HER PhD) at a prominent Northeastern
university.  I asked her, out of curiosity, to tell me about the writing
skills of her students.  Almost across the board, she told me they were
horrendous.  Not just "a few errors" or "strange development of themes" but
awful, horrible mistakes.  I know that you (all) know this is not the
exception, but the rule.  We don't need our "test scores" compared to other
countries to know this.  The kids I know who are in college/have graduated
can barely remember what they just learned.  They read books and novels and
works of literature because they "have" to, and they memorize what they
"must" and then forget it.

Now that I've gone on plenty, I will stop.  But this is my opinion of why
you see so much "recycled", why our culture seems to be feeding ever more
viciously on the values and morals of our past, why the conservatives
scream and demand "traditional values", why kids embrace the dregs of what
is left of the "60's", why nobody seems motivated to do just about
anything, why using drugs and sitting around all day doing nothing isn't
what is wrong, but is a sign saying in reality, that's just about the only
thing we really want to do.

whew...

forgive my post if it offended ye, and respond in private if ye like.  I
don't think the world is "doomed", I just think I need to pitch in and
throw MY shoulder to the wheel to counteract all this entropy.  Perhaps you
feel the same, I don't know.

I guess that's what I'm asking.  Do you feel the same?




	"If men thought of God as much as they think 
	 of the world, who would not attain liberation?"

			--Maitri Upanishad 6.24