The Deepest Hurt

The nostalgia we often feel for times past partially stems from a conviction that human misery is the special ingredient of our own time. We yearn for release; we hanker after the “good old days”-of the “Noble Savage” or “Merry old England” or the “Gay Nineties” or the “Roaring Twenties.” We long for some golden age out of the past, but closer inspection of the “good old days” tends to lessen their glamour. We learn that the times of the “Noble Savage” were marked by frequent famines and high infant mortality. We learn that pestilence and petty tyranny were widespread when England was “merry.” Although we may stand awestruck before the wonder of the Great Pyramids or the immensity of the Great Wall of China, nevertheless we cannot help but remember the immense human misery entailed in their construction.

Commenting on the human tendency to romanticize remote times, the Irish writer, Sean O’Faolain once said, “Don’t look back on the good old days; the…