Among the few perks of working in films is that you occasionally get to see a handful of them for free, albeit in your office and not at a movie theater with popcorn and soda. Recently, I got to watch Woody Allen's latest little doozy titled "Midnight in Paris." Though the film is indeed set in Paris, and the key events are tied to the daily stroke of midnight, that's about the only extent to which the title really tells you anything about the story. Besides the lovely jabs at Tea Party Republicans, there is a much more fundamental point being made and it is addressing a fallacy that definitely applies pretty well across the political spectrum. It is one that I deal with a lot because it is also well-underlined in a lot of religious dogma as well. It's the fantasy that there existed any sort of golden age in the past.
In the movie itself, there exists in the protagonist's mind, a fantasy about the 1920s as a golden age of literature, art, and cultural development. It only becomes apparent later on in the film the extent to which it was a fantasy. Although it is easy to point fingers at conservatives who feign to miss the "good ol' days", we all have a tendency to look back at things in a different light in retrospection.
Indeed, there were times past which were comparatively more fertile in some particular way for some particular thing, but that is not the same as saying that those were better times. But when you look at the past through rose-colored glasses, you aren't going to see every color in the scene... there never were any good ol' days.
In the movie itself, there exists in the protagonist's mind, a fantasy about the 1920s as a golden age of literature, art, and cultural development. It only becomes apparent later on in the film the extent to which it was a fantasy. Although it is easy to point fingers at conservatives who feign to miss the "good ol' days", we all have a tendency to look back at things in a different light in retrospection.
Indeed, there were times past which were comparatively more fertile in some particular way for some particular thing, but that is not the same as saying that those were better times. But when you look at the past through rose-colored glasses, you aren't going to see every color in the scene... there never were any good ol' days.
