Nostalgia

{{Psychology}}
{{cquote|Nostalgia is [[denial]] - denial of the painful present... the name for this denial is [[golden age]] thinking - the erroneous notion that a different time period is better than the one ones living in - its a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.|4=Paul Bates, ''Midnight in Paris (2011)}}
'''Nostalgia''' in its primary sense refers to a longing for times past, which can range from fondly reminiscing on events of the past to obsessing so much over a past event that you try and build a time machine out of a DeLorean to travel back to relive the event over and over again.<ref group=note>Although, that wasn't ''why'' Doc built the time machine.</ref> It is not to be confused with a pain in the nose, which would be ''nasalgia''. Quite often, nostalgia is employed by an erstwhile [[privilege]]d class (e.g. [[White supremacy|White dudes]]) [[Persecution complex|complaining about]] being unable to lord it over everybody else in the current era.

==Triggering nostalgia==
Nostalgia is usually triggered by something which reminds one of a past event, or sometimes when one is doubtful about their present or future situations. People looking back nostalgically tend to see things selectively from a positive aspect, glossing over most, if not all, negative aspects in a memory.

==Nostalgia as a political tool==
{{cquote|We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn't mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, more just.|||Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-carney-speech-davos-rules-based-order-9.7053350 Mark Carney's full speech on middle powers navigating a rapidly changing world] (Jan 20, 2026 12:48 PM PST) ''CBC''.</ref>}}
Politicians, usually but not always of the [[reactionary]] variety, will sometimes invoke nostalgia for a "[[golden age]]" in order to try to roll back changes in the law or culture. A good example was [[Saint Reagan]].

The 2016 Brexit referendum in the UK featured the "leave" side pandering to the kind of people who longed for the time when the United Kingdom colonised half of the world and people could leave their front doors open. This also appealed to that proportion of the population who are still fighting the Second World War and think that bringing back National Service/[[Capital punishment|hanging]]/[[corporal punishment]] in state schools (select one or more as applicable) is going to solve all of the country's problems.

==Nostalgic==
A ''nostalgic'' refers to a person who suffers from nostalgia on a regular basis, frequently longing for times past to occur once again. In response to this, the friend of a nostalgic has a choice of a few routes to take in order to "cure" the person from his/her nostalgia:
#Show the nostalgic a good time to remind him that the future isn't so bleak after all.
#Remind the person that the past wasn't that great after all by reminding the person of the negative aspects of the time.
#Say angrily to the nostalgic, "Before! Before! You're living in the past, man! Quit living in the past!"

===Examples===
*A "Whenwe"; typically a white former [[Zimbabwe]]an, or generally any British expat, who has moved to [[South Africa]], and continually bores his new neighbours with tales of the old country, as in "when we lived in [[Rhodesia]]", or "when we were back home".<ref>{{wpl|Whenwe|Wikipedia — "Whenwe"}}</ref> It is ''not'' a term of endearment.
*People who get overly attached to Confederate monuments.
*"Make America great again!"

==Reality of nostalgia==
Remember how awesome everything was when you were a kid? Everybody lied to you.

==See also==
*[[Good old days]]
*[[Golden age]]
*[[Political spectrum#Conservatism|Conservatism]]
*[[Republican Party]]
*[[Fascism]]
**[[Trumpism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

[[Category:Psychology]]

Categories: Psychology