we can come back

This article was published in Bitcoin Magazine. “Main Problem”. click here To get an annual Bitcoin Magazine subscription.

Click here to download a PDF of this article.

“The Greek word for ‘return’ is nostos. Algos means ‘pain’. Nostalgia is therefore a pain caused by an unfulfilled longing to return.”

– Milan Kundera, ignorance

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. A coping mechanism, inspiration, or manipulative rhetorical tool. For quite some time now, the inhabitants of the West have been conscripted into the battlefield of the mind. Society has been reorganizing itself for decades, or is reorganizing itself at a feverish pace. Perfume has proven to be a powerful weapon in the arsenal of every power on the battlefield.

The power of preparedness should never be underestimated. Humans are living, breathing, pattern-recognizing machines. We cannot help but compare the proposed plans and the current situation with historical results. This is normal and healthy. This gives the human mind some confidence in predicting what will happen next. The human mind hates unpredictability more than anything. Unknown noises coming from the dark are much scarier than the wildlife on the ridge that we can observe and predict.

The regime knows that contrast has such power because it allows for criticism. For example, the power of Florida during COVID-19. If there were no states without lockdowns and orders, forcing the same situation on the entire population, negative feelings about such measures would have diminished. This was the real reason for the popular psychopathy and peer pressure of that era. It’s much harder to get someone to eat a poop sandwich that you’re persistently offered to them when there are other options.

“The past is a candle in the distance. “It’s too close to give up, too far to comfort.”

– Amy Bloom, away

“Hireath” is an ancient Welsh word that describes homesickness for something that no longer exists or never existed. Millennials stand between the old world and the new before 9/11, with memories of a much more prosperous, cohesive, and trustworthy society than we have today. These feelings are amplified by the fact that because of my age, my entire pre-transition era was viewed through the rose-colored glasses of childhood. In essence, millennials are too young to remember the 1992 LA riots or the Oklahoma City bombing with clarity or context, but they are old enough to remember a time when innocence was valued and optimism about the future was common.

This contrast between a less disturbing past and a present comprised of endless psychological warfare can be many things. The past can be said to be a critique of how far we have fallen and are thrown into the face of opposition from the ruling order. It can also be a healthy or unhealthy coping mechanism. From vaporwave to farmhouse living, from filtered edits of 1980s Miami to thoughts of the Roman Empire, the aesthetics and contrasts of the past are coming back with a vengeance because the present is too Lovecraftian to personify.

My personal favorite example was the meteoric rise of the band Creed. The band broke up in 2004 but miraculously came back to life. A video of the Thanksgiving halftime show performed in Dallas in 2001 went viral. This snapshot, which occurred just two months after the 9/11 attacks, captured and distilled both the optimism of the time and the resilience of the people. The video entered the narrative bloodstream, sparking statements like “we were the real country” and demands that we deserve better because there was once something better than this.

Soon after, the Texas Rangers began their run toward the World Series after a rough start. The team credited his return to Creed, who began playing him constantly in the locker room for motivation. “Higher” and “My Sacrifice” rang out at Dallas home games, with fans singing along in large choruses. The Rangers will go on to win the World Series on a newly announced tour across the United States, with a reunited Creed attending games with the Jerseys. The winner of this season’s The Voice was a burly white guy who sang Creed’s “Higher” in the finale. In the dark times of ‘It’s So Over’, the embers of ‘We Are So Back’ are burning.

“Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of existence.”

— Albert Camus, rebel

But the regime also understands the power of contrast. The solution to this problem was to tear down or change the past. Beloved franchises that influence culture have been ignored and butchered by people like Kathleen Kennedy. Movies and historical fiction shows are designed to impose modern norms about gender, diversity, and cynical cynicism on our past. Suddenly Britain always had black Scandinavians, Afro-Roman soldiers, and history’s great figures “reinvented” their conquests and achievements to give credit to others. Wikipedia is edited, and classic literature and its heroes are “reimagined” and evaluated through a modern lens.

Visual media is clearly the most powerful means of doing this. same series as stranger things It tries to recreate the most familiar expressions of the 1980s, but only subtly pushes the values ​​that the regime wants to promote, as if this situation has always been the norm. yellowstone Strong cowboys and patriarchal dynasties get critical acclaim only for spending their free time emphasizing that good friends should be feminists. Like an angler with a pretty bait and a poisonous bite, it’s designed to entertain you just long enough for the abalone to escape.

This adds some urgency to stopping corruption. That’s why we need to promote and share the best parts of the past, even if it’s Creed’s halftime show. Those of us who remember the time before the world moved must pass on the good and normal things that we know nothing about to the generation born in the suffering of the hell world. It is our duty to shout from the rooftops that this is not the best we can do, nor the best we have ever done. The past provides a blueprint for the right future, even if it must remain in the past.

This article was published in Bitcoin Magazine. “Main Problem”. click here To get an annual Bitcoin Magazine subscription.

Click here to download a PDF of this article.