From: Corwyn J. Alambar (nettiger@best.com)
Date: Sun Oct 01 2000 - 21:27:49 MDT
Just an interesting questionon social dynamics and personal perception:
Does anyone else see the tendency of people as they grow older to romanticize
their own pasts, to talk fondly of the "good old days", such as when that nice
boy down the street had to spend six months in an iron lung because of
polio, or back when that girl in the front of the class showed up with bruises
and black eyes because she'd "fallen down the stairs"?
It seems the fursther distant we grow from any event we personally experienced,
we seem to romanticize or at least nostalgize (is this even a word?) over it
more and more. What sort of purpose does this pose, and what results in it?
It seems that, at least memetically, it is related to the slow calcification
and resistance to change that seems to occur as many people grow older. Will
encouraging memetic flexibility over tiem eventually blunt this sense of
nostaliga, perhaps, and may it even possibly nullify the more reactionary
elements of society?
The reason this is so important is because quite possibly in the western
world we have seen a population peak - the "baby boomer" generation may be the
largest in most western nations, an this could increasingly make nostalgia
less and less a simple cultural oddity and more and more an actual
sociopolitical threat to advancement and progress.
Perhaps begin outreach to those approaching retiree age and attempt to get
extropian and transhumanist memes into their minds before they calcify? Hmmm,
extropian missionaries sent to places like Arizona and Florida to speak of the
benefits of extropian thought (lide extension would be a big selling point
here) the way missionaries of certain Christian sects fan out across Asian,
African, and South American nations? It's an interesting thought.
-Corey
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