Read an article in FT. What stood out for me was a description of nostalgia, a phenomenon that is plaguing all societies I have a connection with.
“What makes nostalgia so hard to argue against is that it is an ever-moving target. People pluck their favourite bits from different periods — the homogeneous culture of the 1950s, the industrial peace of the 1990s, the rampant growth of the pre-crash noughties — and combine them into a single fictitious moment. This isn’t just a sleight of hand. It makes it impossible for the present to “win”. Twenty twenty-five has to go up against a Best Of, a compilation from the last century or so.”
Britain is not a broken society - Opinion by Janan Ganesh, Financial Times. 30 July 2025
https://on.ft.com/4l8JEl2