One of Trump’s mantras was to "make America great again", the implication being that America used to be great but it no longer is. But is that really the case?
It’s quite common for people to have a nostalgic, rose-tinted view of the past. During the 1970s, people in America started to romanticize about the 1950s, idealizing them as an idyllic time. Movies like Grease or TV shows like Happy Days are an expression of that sentiment. But what was so great about America in the 1950s? Probably not that much.
I suppose there was less pollution. Maybe fewer murders. But that was also a time when many black people were segregated from the rest of society, when road safety was atrocious, when domestic violence was hardly ever reported, when sexual harassment at work was commonplace, when socialists and communists were ostracised for their views, and when gay people had to live double lives. (I’m starting to see why Trump thinks America used to be great.)
I suspect people get nostalgic about a certain decade because they associate it with their youth. For me, that would be the 1980s. Were the 80s better than today? God no. Apart from Reaganomics, that was also the decade that gave us mullets, shoulder pads and leg warmers. (Which haven’t come back yet. Fingers crossed.)
It’s hard to argue that it was better when you needed change to make a phone call, when you had to record music on cassettes and movies on VHS tapes, when you had to wait a few days for your photos to be developed, and when you couldn’t look up information on the internet. (That’s right, that’s what I look up on the internet. Information. Not Asian ladies. God forbid.)
But one of my fondest memories of that time is my almost daily trip to the nearby newspaper kiosk to check out the comics and the magazines. (Sad but true.) I used to go there even if I didn’t have any pocket money on me. Just gazing at that paper paradise filled my heart with joy. (Again, sad but true.)
Now, I realize that newspaper kiosks are still around, and I’m still drawn to them when I'm in Italy. (Like a moth to a flame.) However, now that people can get newspapers and magazines on their tablet, the owners of those kiosks are all complaining that sales are a fraction of what they used to be, and many of them struggle to turn a profit. (Similar story in America, where the so-called newsstands are shutting left and right.)
And you can tell things have changed. If you were on a train back then, you looked around and most people were reading a paper or a magazine. I took the train not long ago, and everyone was staring at their phones. (Probably checking what their friends had for breakfast. You don’t want to miss that.)
Will there still be newspaper kiosks in 10 or 20 years’ time? I don’t know. I’m just glad they were there at the time.
M.
PS: Can you be nostalgic about a place and a time you've never been to? Well, technically no, I suppose. And yet, If I had a time machine, would I like to go to back the San Remo Café in New York's Greenwich Village in the late 50s to have a cappuccino and discuss poetry with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac? I think I would.
(Although I suppose I'd have to think of something clever to say when, inevitably, they will ask me "Who the fuck are you, man, and who told you you can sit down?")
