By Oriana-Mara CIOBANU
Edited by Clélie Suzanne Rose Chloé PARASIE
Before it was better. This is a statement that billions of people have said. Everyone said it, some even meant it, but why is it that way? Why do people find comfort in the past?
The past is supposed to teach us, to make us understand our lives and the society we live in. To show us how far we have come in our ways. To learn from other people’s experiences and not replicate the same mistakes. But that is usually not the case. We don’t want to understand the errors of the past and so we do them over and over again. Political views that were long ago dismissed are now resurfacing and causing their damage all over again: migration is becoming a problem once more and only getting worse, women are starting to have less and less rights again, in places where this was taken for granted, and, exactly like in the Middle Ages the rich are only getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
If we think on another level, it might actually have been better before. When children played outside instead of being on their phones all the time and wanted toys for their birthdays instead of electronics and makeup. Times were simpler, school was more laid back, music was better, movies were better, TV was an extraordinary and impressive thing that has now become obsolete. Back when architecture and style were viewed as true forms of art and not as it is today, only a necessity.
For example the styles from the 90s and 2000s are now coming back strong, which shows that everyone is clinging on to the small things of the past when things were better, more colorful and more fun.
We humans always want something more. We are never happy with what we have. We are always stressing about what could happen, so it stops us from actually doing anything. We need reassurance and as time is the only thing tying everything together, we need to find comfort in time. And as the future is too uncertain and too scary everyone turns to the past. Maybe not the far away past with all the wars and plagues, but the closer past that we remember, that we can relate to. We should be going towards a better future but everyday it’s only getting worse and so we blame it on the present saying “it was better before”.