History Is Not An Antidepressant

So many times in difficult moments of our personnel or civic life you often hear people remark how they miss what America and their place in it was. In certain days people feel we were better or more civilized or whatever. We all probably fall victim to these emotions at some point. I myself as well . I have even been retrospective in this my occasional blog about my interactions and experiences of my life past. But the truth so often is not quite as we remember. I have a few fond memories of my hometown life in Schodack , NY 12033. Certain friends and events. But if after moments of thinking of past times with a reflective kindness my sense of historical reality always seems to intrude. We travel through a whirlwind of events , great and small. As someone is in a circle of the glow of life , someone else is miserable. For old school people as an example I might wish to see and discover how some are doing , there are many more people I wish to avoid on a permanent basis. As events this past weekend of the mass political shooting in Tucson AZ unfolded several times people commented what we have become and what better times there was. Bullshit. The sixties were a mass of conflict , assassination , riot , and past discrimination coming home to roost in our cities and of course the ongoing war in Vietnam. The drug problems we have now got a strong foothold in those days. The following decades had their less treasured moments of political strife and social pain. I have also seen improvement in the lives of people and institutions , more responsive to a broader range of the populace. Yes we are a culture more rude and violent on some scales. It is a mistake on the parts of historians or regular folk to avoid the true sense reality of what really was. History is not an antidepressant to be used as a reflective drug to calm or condemn. If it were a drug it would cause a complex reaction , not to be surprised all over again by what just happened.