Applied Nostalgia--A Parental Look Back Without past memories, Americans lack a standard to base present conditions These memories lie carefully shuffled and categorized in the giant shifter called thebrain to crudely approximate the present standard of life. They hope to draw gratificationand fulfillment in the progression of the quality of their and especially their childrens lives.This innate desire to compare the past to the present drives personal and politicaldecisions, especially conservatives who advocate a change to the policies and values of thepast. Today, the faded memories of an emerging group of parents of their post-WorldWar II upbringing, like cherished family dinners around the kitchen oak table and carelessexcursions into town, against a perceived modern backdrop haze of random violence, daterape, and single parent households, turned a group of parents hearts and minds to thebygone 1950s. They hope to revive their cherished childhood memories. The Medveds,parental authors, recall their upbringing: The women enjoyed being home for the kidsand peers came over for basketball and homemade lemonade (Paul 64). Shalit, author ofReturn to Modesty: A Lost Virtue remembers when past women helped around thecommunity and raised their children with a unparalleled dedication (Paul 64). In the wakeof the Colorado school massacre such a move seems justified. Yet, even in spite of manysocial ills of our drug-addicted, sex-obsessed, morally lax and spiritually bankruptsociety (Paul 64) parents remain skeptical. of such a drastic reversal in a drasticallychanged time. For now, the skepticism over the reversal to the past merits furtherexamination before any drastic action. The parents advocating a change to the past promote a bleak present and futurewith problems ranging across the social, political, and economic spectrum, afraid that theirworries might mirror in their kids. Adult fairy tales that marriage will last forever, sexproduc...
