Those Were The Days!

For those of, ahem, longer memories, "Those Were The Days" might recall the song sung by Archie Bunker and his wife Edith at the beginning of that long-running TV show "All In The Family." We watched it religiously in our apartment each week.

Why bring it up now? The obvious reason would be the sentiment expressed: Things were better then than they are now.

Of course, this sentiment bubbles up as we get older, at least for many of us. Stuff changes throughout out short span in this world. A lot seems to be stuff that's worse than what we remember things were like in the "old days."

("Bring back the old days!" might make a good T-shirt, no?)

Is it really true? Do things really get worse?

First, let's concede the aging factor as one element contributing to this sentiment. And second, let's acknowledge that sentiments - feelings - can be deceptive. 

Yes, these days you wouldn't know this. After all, "I feel" has become the constant mantra of expressing what we purportedly think. "I feel like" is a variation. A simple example:

"I feel like you don't like me." It's a common enough sentiment, isn't it? You feel this. But do you ever ask the question: Do you actually not like me, or is this just a feeling I have at the moment? It very well may be that your feeling is based more on how things are going on this particular day, rather than any manifestation of dislike by our theoretical "you."

The point being that lots of basically arbitrary, even irrational stuff makes up our feelings. Not that we should ignore our feelings, but are they really a good basis for judgment or for making decisions?

Anyway, "Those were the days" likely contains some element of such feelings. And while aging can amplify these feelings, it's not the exclusion realm of our dear senior citizens.

Which still leaves us with the question of whether things have gotten worse over recent years.

As you may have noticed, our comments about markets, the economy, our broad social relationships, our culture - all of which make up a chunk of the world - do imply that things have at the very least trended in what we might label the "wrong" direction.

Which is to say, things have gotten worse.

Meanwhile, we've noted that much of what is shoveled at us by the media, and our esteemed "leaders" keeps telling us things are pretty good, if not outright hunky-dory.

Note the divergence of opinion here.

So who's right: us or them?

Naturally, we fall into the camp of "us." But that doesn't mean we're right. And to be clear, if fact-checked, our past posts have decidedly not relied on feelings. We're tried to dredge up a dollop of reality out of the sludge that's resulted from the shoveling referenced above. Perhaps with some success; maybe not,

Either way, it does behoove us all to recognize the role of feeling in this "Those were the days" sentiment. And once we do, it further behooves us to sort through that which is not mere feeling and suss out whether our world has indeed gotten "worse" (for want of a better word) in recent years.

Of course, the question of what to do if indeed it has gotten worse, is also something we've tried to address at times. But we're running short on time now. The weekend looms - and let's hope it holds some relief from the "worse" that does seem to be growing - at least from our little perch in we Catholics call this "Vale of Tears."

So there's your assignment for the weekend. Either that, or you could ignore the whole issue and just get some R&R - or maybe both.

Meanwhile, we note that today is the feast day of St. Augustine in the Catholic liturgical calendar. He's a guy well worth knowing. And he lived and wrote in a time when things were indeed getting worse - in the final days of the decline of the Roman Empire. 

(A nod to those who believe we're living in similar times.) 

To help enhance the mood here, rather than the song that kicked of today's discussion, here's version of the same thing from way back - a pretty decent song sung by a pretty decent singer, Mary Hopkins. Take a listen.