Naively Neglecting Nostalgia
Nostalgia. A term I haven’t thought about in a long time up until I was prompted to write something on it for the STSC Symposium. It had been quite a shock. I am familiar with the feeling, but not only did I not think of this term, I did not have any nostalgia in a long time. When this word was originally proposed as a topic for the Symposium, it just piqued my curiosity to uncover the evolutionary purpose of this commonplace pattern of thought and emotion. As with anything else that influences us as a species, I immediately wanted to unveil its metaphysical and psychological implications through logic. After some consideration though, I was much more shocked about my personal lack of this relatively pleasant psycho-emotional state. That is because I had a wonderful childhood. It had been overshadowed by a less appreciated adolescence, to put it mildly. But how come I hardly ever think back on the wonderful experiences I had in my formative years? Apparently, it had been due to the fact of me having embarked on a long trip of trying to sort though the negative influences that shaped me in such a way that they diminished the expression of my potential and well-being. Negative psychology for the win.
Obviously, many more people need to become much more comfortable with confronting what the feelings of discontent plaguing their souls indicate.
But can’t we also sometimes just allow ourselves to dwell in the closed off past? The joy that was bestowed upon us does not take away anything from the now. It only adds to it.
Yes, we live in a period of extreme abundance. Maybe even more so than what would be beneficial. Through digital means, we can access a seemingly never-ending stream of entertainment designed to satisfy any imaginable desire. Therefore, it is a fair point to curb the enthusiasm for neutering our souls and their drive to improvement by deliberately indulging in even more pleasurable states of consciousness merely for the sake of even more pleasure. Humanity certainly has a lot of potential to unlock in confronting the uncomfortable truths that led and leads to discontent of barely inexpressible variety.
But nostalgia is something different.
It is not a carefully engineered hyper-engaging feast for the senses simply existent to drive up the market value of a media-corporation or some influencer’s ad-revenue. It is a naturally occurring heavily emotionally loaded outstanding memory. The kind of experience one might even remember when a neurodegenerative disease cannibalized the cognitive capacities to the point of being unable to recall the name of one’s spouse or recognize one’s children’s faces. When a function of this sort is programmed into human nature, with such a predictably positive influence on the state of the subject experiencing it, we should take it seriously.
I believe we have earworms because some songs leave an open loop, deliberately lacking the necessary musical notes to have a harmonic sequence appear complete. Therefore, our brains repeat them over and over to find a resolution to this pattern. Nostalgia is the opposite to this. There are no open loops. The memory is complete. We do not have to wonder about how it will continue or end. That makes it special. There is no fear of lack or losing in nostalgia, only joy for what has been. These memories can never be taken away either. They are irrevocably engrained in the space-time-continuum as facts, eternally unaltered…
…with a certain pain but much more amusement I do now take advantage of my artistic freedom and leave this article unfinished, mostly due to the fact of having procrastinated up until the very last moment. Thank you for reading anyhow.