This post reminded me of a meme that went something like "Liking music from the 90's is not a personality trait."
It seems to tie in well with "And of course people who have been trained from birth to deal with only the visual and the surface are going to adopt a distorted and ‘wrong’ version of the fashion labels, colour palettes and haircuts way before they burrow through the sediment to reach the morality and the mentality", which is an important sentiment that you've touched on in the past, and I'm certain you're going to delve into in the future - the lack of depth.
Not only depth of learning, but even depth of preferences. It's just adopting a label as identity, with no real meaning behind it. It's unfortunate really, but it's been something I've seen happening with my friends right in front of my eyes, and I think it's only reading articles like yours and books (Postman for example), that have even made me aware of this in the first place.
Most worryingly, I'm at the stage in my mid-20's where most of my close friends have moved into corporate jobs, talk about nothing but sports, video-games, Netflix and they're all playing golf.
In spite of what every internet guru has advised me to do, I still love them to death, and I'm still friends with them. The seeming impossibility of being able to remain friends with "normies" has always been weird to me, I mean you can always just say no when they ask you to play golf?
The world getting more basic aside, "All Nostalgia is Nostalgia for Past Optimism" is brilliant. like you pointed out, Gen Z is absolutely obsessed with the 90's but I feel like there's been a healthy dose of 80's nostalgia going around too, especially on twitter - synthwave, bodybuilding and nationalism. I would be lying if I didn't find the simplicity of it all appealing.
Loved the 3 steps at the end as well (gumroad course incoming?), embracing decentralization and betting on yourself has never been more important. It definitely feels like that DIY spirit is being embraced, and localism seems to be making a return as well. I think it was Taleb who first introduced me to that term, but I'm starting to see it pop up everywhere.
One good example is Brunello Cuccinelli, the founder of Cuccinelli a luxury men's fashion line. If you haven't heard of him I strongly recommend you to look him up. I imagine you'll find something of a kindred spirit in him. He's published his writings on his website, which has "Beauty is the symbol of the morally good"- I.Kant emblazoned on it's lander, and articles with titles such as "The Decline of Consumerism in Favour of the Fair Use of Things" and "My Idea of Humanistic Capitalism".
Anyway, loved the article as always Tom, they seem to be resonating strongly with people which is great to see.
great mail, thomas. keep em coming. For the mail, specifically, knowing what quality "art" I was going to get, I went and prepped me a cup of green tea, priming, as if like a ritual.
Good times.
Im never nostalgic, or so I thought, but I always long for places, and people, especially.
Past is no place to live, indeed. This mail made me feel, more and give sensations and tid bits of images, rather than well formed thoughts.
Oh boï, do I have some thoughts about that "nostalgia" thing !
First, let me confess that I have always been prone to nostalgia as a way not to go forward; there is a deadly comfort in reading old books, watching old films, and analyzing these epochs only from this artistic perspective, to be able to say "What has this world gone to ? My God, I would have been so much happier back then !" That childish and fear-driven idea usually disappears when you talk with people who actually lived during these times, and tell you all the dirty-kitchen stuff you conveniently brushed aside (talk to your grandad about these "golden times" when pneumonia often meant death, or to your parents about the cold war era). When you look back and remember the time spent with an old lover, you usually remember all the good stuff and not the day-to-day nagging and disputes that ended the relationship. I think it is the same with history. Nostalgia is often a way of reframing the past to better cope with it and - hopefully - building your roots to move forward.
Regarding the Gen Z approach to Nostalgia, I think they live in a world far more fractured and atomized than we did in the 90s. We're at the end of an era where everything is pushed to the extreme and the system can only go on as long as it pushes forward. The past 15 years developments of technology have created an atomised world where everyone is his own niche and every artistic trend is subdivided in tens of sub-genres. How can you find a common cultural ground in that? Kids need references, they need "roots" to build their own identity. And the modern world offers none, so it seems only logical that they go and find them in the past, in an era where creativity had more room to flourish and where the "market" had not yet took total control over it. So yeah, they're only taking the attributes and the symbols (like clothing and haircuts), but that's the mandatory first step before going further.
I would also say that we are in a refinement culture that kills the ingenuity and the fun out of every activity. You see it within the sports industry (btw who called sports an industry in the 80s?): everything is über-professionalized, there are so much new rules, regulations and technological sophistication that the only thing that matters is the .001 second you'll have over the oponent. Marketing and PR agencies have effectively weaponized the fun in every cultural activity and I feel that Gen Z teenagers/young adults are craving for a return to something more "humane", more candid. So some of them dive in nostalgia in search for it.
I think that this is one of your best newsletters yet. You can certainly see nostalgia for the past playing a part in people being disappointed by their idols. It's very common with fans of bands, such as Smiths fans bemoaning Morrissey's current political views. At times it feels as if there's a requirement for the individuals you admired in your youth to continually act as a kind of beacon throughout the later years of your lifespan. I'm probably just waffling nonsense, though.
Anyway, I hope that you keep writing these. I look forward to them every Sunday. Cheers.
This was really great. I love your writing style.
Another great article on nostalgia you might enjoy (if you haven't read it already!) :
https://aeon.co/essays/nostalgia-doesnt-need-real-memories-an-imagined-past-works-as-well
This post reminded me of a meme that went something like "Liking music from the 90's is not a personality trait."
It seems to tie in well with "And of course people who have been trained from birth to deal with only the visual and the surface are going to adopt a distorted and ‘wrong’ version of the fashion labels, colour palettes and haircuts way before they burrow through the sediment to reach the morality and the mentality", which is an important sentiment that you've touched on in the past, and I'm certain you're going to delve into in the future - the lack of depth.
Not only depth of learning, but even depth of preferences. It's just adopting a label as identity, with no real meaning behind it. It's unfortunate really, but it's been something I've seen happening with my friends right in front of my eyes, and I think it's only reading articles like yours and books (Postman for example), that have even made me aware of this in the first place.
Most worryingly, I'm at the stage in my mid-20's where most of my close friends have moved into corporate jobs, talk about nothing but sports, video-games, Netflix and they're all playing golf.
In spite of what every internet guru has advised me to do, I still love them to death, and I'm still friends with them. The seeming impossibility of being able to remain friends with "normies" has always been weird to me, I mean you can always just say no when they ask you to play golf?
The world getting more basic aside, "All Nostalgia is Nostalgia for Past Optimism" is brilliant. like you pointed out, Gen Z is absolutely obsessed with the 90's but I feel like there's been a healthy dose of 80's nostalgia going around too, especially on twitter - synthwave, bodybuilding and nationalism. I would be lying if I didn't find the simplicity of it all appealing.
Loved the 3 steps at the end as well (gumroad course incoming?), embracing decentralization and betting on yourself has never been more important. It definitely feels like that DIY spirit is being embraced, and localism seems to be making a return as well. I think it was Taleb who first introduced me to that term, but I'm starting to see it pop up everywhere.
One good example is Brunello Cuccinelli, the founder of Cuccinelli a luxury men's fashion line. If you haven't heard of him I strongly recommend you to look him up. I imagine you'll find something of a kindred spirit in him. He's published his writings on his website, which has "Beauty is the symbol of the morally good"- I.Kant emblazoned on it's lander, and articles with titles such as "The Decline of Consumerism in Favour of the Fair Use of Things" and "My Idea of Humanistic Capitalism".
Anyway, loved the article as always Tom, they seem to be resonating strongly with people which is great to see.
great mail, thomas. keep em coming. For the mail, specifically, knowing what quality "art" I was going to get, I went and prepped me a cup of green tea, priming, as if like a ritual.
Good times.
Im never nostalgic, or so I thought, but I always long for places, and people, especially.
Past is no place to live, indeed. This mail made me feel, more and give sensations and tid bits of images, rather than well formed thoughts.
Until the next mail.
—Fury
Oh boï, do I have some thoughts about that "nostalgia" thing !
First, let me confess that I have always been prone to nostalgia as a way not to go forward; there is a deadly comfort in reading old books, watching old films, and analyzing these epochs only from this artistic perspective, to be able to say "What has this world gone to ? My God, I would have been so much happier back then !" That childish and fear-driven idea usually disappears when you talk with people who actually lived during these times, and tell you all the dirty-kitchen stuff you conveniently brushed aside (talk to your grandad about these "golden times" when pneumonia often meant death, or to your parents about the cold war era). When you look back and remember the time spent with an old lover, you usually remember all the good stuff and not the day-to-day nagging and disputes that ended the relationship. I think it is the same with history. Nostalgia is often a way of reframing the past to better cope with it and - hopefully - building your roots to move forward.
Regarding the Gen Z approach to Nostalgia, I think they live in a world far more fractured and atomized than we did in the 90s. We're at the end of an era where everything is pushed to the extreme and the system can only go on as long as it pushes forward. The past 15 years developments of technology have created an atomised world where everyone is his own niche and every artistic trend is subdivided in tens of sub-genres. How can you find a common cultural ground in that? Kids need references, they need "roots" to build their own identity. And the modern world offers none, so it seems only logical that they go and find them in the past, in an era where creativity had more room to flourish and where the "market" had not yet took total control over it. So yeah, they're only taking the attributes and the symbols (like clothing and haircuts), but that's the mandatory first step before going further.
I would also say that we are in a refinement culture that kills the ingenuity and the fun out of every activity. You see it within the sports industry (btw who called sports an industry in the 80s?): everything is über-professionalized, there are so much new rules, regulations and technological sophistication that the only thing that matters is the .001 second you'll have over the oponent. Marketing and PR agencies have effectively weaponized the fun in every cultural activity and I feel that Gen Z teenagers/young adults are craving for a return to something more "humane", more candid. So some of them dive in nostalgia in search for it.
I think that this is one of your best newsletters yet. You can certainly see nostalgia for the past playing a part in people being disappointed by their idols. It's very common with fans of bands, such as Smiths fans bemoaning Morrissey's current political views. At times it feels as if there's a requirement for the individuals you admired in your youth to continually act as a kind of beacon throughout the later years of your lifespan. I'm probably just waffling nonsense, though.
Anyway, I hope that you keep writing these. I look forward to them every Sunday. Cheers.