“I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.”–George Burns
‘Ol George, ever the straight man. If I could only live to 100, like him, there’d be plenty of future to look forward to. Too bad so many people are looking to relive the past. Believe me, it wasn’t as good as they think it was.
The Millennium Conjectures™ 
The expression, “it wasn’t as good as they think it was” is interesting because the past is always as good as we “think” it was. None of us can go there except in our thoughts. I would go even further to say it is just as good as books and television make it. As for personal memory that isn’t so reliable either. Heck, I can screw up telling what happened five minutes ago especially if it has something to do with where I left my glasses.
I love George. I crack open “They Love Me in Altoona” every once in a while when I need perspective.
Interesting point, Rio. But I think we are playing with semantics here. Notice that I said it wasn’t as good as we think it was, while you said it’s as good as we think it was. In some heads yes. But look at the reality of, say, the 1950’s. We still had segregation in the south, we had McCarthyism, we had an Ozzie and Harriet view of family life that denigrated the role of women in society. All those Trumpites who think life would idyllic if we could go back to that era can take their phony metaphors and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine, as far as I am concerned.
Well, I forgot about agendas and politics, you’re right. We are getting to the facts about history and not just the history of the U.S.A. these days, things that are documented, maybe ignored but at least documented so yeah, things sucked. I was thinking about personal history and because I didn’t grow up in the U.S. that included other things I guess. Sorry.
I thought I was commenting on the function of memory and instead I found I was in a conversation that started long before I got here, a bee in the bonnet for sure because it was a lead into a complaint about Trump supporters. Which is something we can all do right? Yay for having a common enemy. (Can I say that about the president? Am I safe to say that?) WE HATE TRUMP AND TRUMP SUPPORTERS. High Five!
The thing is, American foreign policy has been f**king us all up for a long time and Trump seems like just desserts to many people in the world because he is the personification of the blunt instrument that has been American foreign policy since the second world war. He is just REALLY obvious. Before him nobody even noticed that Saudi Arabia gets a hall pass ALL THE TIME no matter what. And that’s just one example.
As for domestic policy, you put something like “in god we trust” on the money well, it’s not about a just society is it? It’s about GOD GIVEN RIGHTS and like all churches you have to BELONG to get any manna from heaven.
If you don’t belong you have work out your own currency and that means you are OUTSIDE of a lot of stuff including the “law”. You end up in prisons. Lots of you end up there and hey, don’t you all sort of look alike? Wow. How did THAT HAPPEN?
The British Empire did a fair job at “us and them”, themselves. (I think I broke my grammar). People kept trying to escape the British Empire because while you could live and work (to death) within it you could never be a peer. The King or Queen is the head of the church AND the empire, no big co-incident there. And sure, what can any royal really do? Still, if you put gorillas on the money we would tend to pay more attention to Gorillas wouldn’t we? I bet there’d be more gorillas on the runway, and the relative intelligence of gorillas would go up several points just because they were the appointed (by god) to be figure heads….
You look at the Hapsburgs, in all of those portraits painted, all of them ugly as sin (in my opinion) but they became the gold standard of what it was to be a good looking human for hundreds of years. (Really they tend to look like that person at the family reunion who spends too much time licking their fingers. You know who I mean. EVERY FAMILY has one no matter where in the world you go…)
So thanks to ugly white Americans we also have a weird idea about what is a desirable image to “fit in” to the RIGHT GROUP of bipeds. The president of the United States of America. Wow, how did THAT happen?
Also, I don’t think I am alone in saying that I really wish Americans would stop being so distracted by puppet shows and pay attention to what their very powerful nation is doing in the world. Just saying.
Wow, Rio. My head is spinning; all that from a little George Burns quote! 😉
Well, I think I said sorry at some point. I didn’t start the political discussion you did.
Who me!? (What, me worry?) 😛