Nostalgia for the Past? It's Not the First Round.

Have people the world over been "seized" with irrational nostalgia? In "The Global Nostalgia Epidemic", Edoardo Campanella writes:

Surveying today's world, one might well conclude that it is increasingly trapped in the past. Many people across Europe and North America believe that life was better 50 years ago...Whether the problem is rising inequality, economic stagnation, or technological disruption, nostalgia offers relief from socioeconomic angst. But far from being innocuous, infatuation with a mythicized past is shaping our politics in dangerous ways, not least by creating fertile ground for jingoistic leaders who are happy to exploit nostalgia for their own ends.

I'd like to suggest that this is only the latest round of sentimentalism, for a time when one's personal efforts in the economic domain were generally more likely to generate rewards. Hence for baby boomers such as myself who ended up leaving the workplace too soon, cultural battles can seem as though a belated national reaction, to the hollowing out of economic dynamism in far too many local communities.

However I disagree with much of the polarized political response which has emerged. Thus far, political posturing offers no real solutions for the fact the center can't hold, given its excessive reliance on the institutions which no longer have room for all comers. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that capitalism or governments have "failed", only that their present organizational capacity is insufficient to move forward into a more dynamic future.

My own nostalgic attempts for retail based self employment began in the early nineties. That's when baby boomers such as myself, discovered that office work with benefits was a declining option, for many without college degrees. In retrospect, those baby boomer hopes for Main Street retail locations, were ill fated from the start. So what, them, prompted too many of us to make losing bets with our capital investments, knowing full well the extent of mom and pop businesses already facing displacement by chain stores?

Put simply, there were too few other economic options, for individuals who wished to continue engaging with others locally. Imagine for a moment, former office workers abandoning "ships", but the most obvious local option (without a college degree, for work that wouldn't be too physically demanding as one aged) was one's own Main Street business. In other words, with a little luck on one's side, retail opportunities appeared as though nearby "ships" which could still be boarded successfully.

That initial round of nostalgia, was also part of what capitalism had provided for so long, via the earlier dynamism of tradable sector activity. Barring other business opportunities, one might instead recapture the sentimental Main Street memories of a baby boomer childhood. Despite the extensive investment losses many of us ultimately endured, this seemingly "dumb" response to unemployment, was a lot more benign than what is playing out in the present.

For anyone who was "shipwrecked" after the loss of once reliable office work, the hope of course was that other nearby ships weren't "taking on too much water" to stay afloat. Even though many local Main Streets were under threat, where were the other additional ships (local institutions) designed so as to lend certainty to local commitment and investment? Indeed, some structural problems which contributed to the Great Recession were probably temporarily delayed, as many baby boomers continued as long as possible - often a decade or more - investing in small business capital, which could hopefully allow one to coast to retirement.

One reason this societal struggle has finally moved to a cultural level (where little good can be expected to occur) is that no new institutional frameworks were explored at local levels - decades earlier - when it mattered most. Indeed, nostalgia for the past is rational, when societies don't create new organizational patterns that provide possibilities for a better way forward. What's not rational, is the impulse to destroy previous still functioning institutions just because they can't be all things to all people. Hopefully we can bring down the cultural battles a few notches, so as to explore the possibility of new institutions that prove worthy of the risk and commitment of those with the courage to believe in them.