Will we ever look back with nostalgia?

[Christinaismyperson]

I was just thinking about how the pandemic and lockdown are often compared to WW2 and I was wondering if one day we will ever look back with nostalgia? And if so what will we be nostalgic about?

It also got me thinking how strange the nostalgia for WW2 is, surely living through it would have been far worse than the pandemic? Husbands, sons and brothers being shipped overseas to fight. Rationing and going without food, the real possibility a bomb will drop on your house killing you and your children. Seems mad people look back with such fondness? Is it a survival technique or is it mainly people who were children in the war who didn’t understand or weren’t even born?

No

I find it hard to imagine it would happen. But then I find it hard to understand the nostalgia for WW2!

No from me too.

No, I think there’ll eventually be a collective ‘why the hell did we become hysterical, let the government control us and fuck up our kids lives?’ reaction.

I think a lot of people will be traumatised, much like the war, and smells like hand santiser, sights like masks will trigger them, crying etc.

Those with nostalgia for the war likely weren't that close to it (or weren't separated from family).

I have nostalgia for Christmas/NY 2020.

It's a no from me.

I’m struggling to imagine a time when we “look back”

I guess I feel a bit like this will never end. I can’t imagine 5 years time and what I will feel or think about this whole shit show!

Yes, but not by everyone.

There will always be people who use the past to berate others: "this generation wouldn't cope with a pandemic!"
"No-one was selfish in the pandemic- we all pulled together!"
"We didn't moan during the pandemic, this generation has no backbone!"
"No money for food and broken both legs? Well think yourself lucky you're not in lockdown!"
Etc etc.

It will be bollocks of course, just as many of the myths about WW2 are bollocks.

I imagine some will look back with nostalgia, and it will be those people who have benefited in some way from the huge lifestyle shift. I know, for example, people who are furloughed and enjoying the free time while financially comfortable, and others who always wanted to work at home full time and finally are doing that.
I think a lot of the nostalgia for wartime is imagined from people who didn't actually live through it. My grandparents always said it was the worst time of their lives - my grandad in a trench for six years and on the beach in Dunkirk, my grandma at home with a baby and rationed food, waiting for bombs to drop and not knowing if her husband was alive. Terrifying! They really did have nostalgia for the post war years though!
When you see wartime nostalgia now it's all nice dresses, cute slogan posters, pulling together in a time of need, it's never going to the toilet outside, bathing once a week in a couple of inches of water, sleeping in a dusty stuffy anderson shelter, etc.

I will to a certain extent about lockdown one but the rest of it can get to fuck.

@SquishySquirmy

Yes, but not by everyone.

There will always be people who use the past to berate others: "this generation wouldn't cope with a pandemic!"
"No-one was selfish in the pandemic- we all pulled together!"
"We didn't moan during the pandemic, this generation has no backbone!"
"No money for food and broken both legs? Well think yourself lucky you're not in lockdown!"
Etc etc.

It will be bollocks of course, just as many of the myths about WW2 are bollocks.

👍😂

I'll look back with boredom. Can you imagine the poor kids having to study this in future history lessons. Although it might not even be worthy a subject.

No, I think there’ll eventually be a collective ‘why the hell did we become hysterical, let the government control us and fuck up our kids lives?’ reaction.

100000 people have died. How is that ‘hysteria?’

My reaction is ‘why the fuck didn’t this government Perdue a zero Covid policy to avoid blood on their hands?’

I think if you and your family haven't been directly affected by the pandemic i.e no-one's died, you haven't lost your job/home etc you might look back with a tinge of nostalgia - depending on how normal life goes back to. For example I can imagine people not missing commuting, or being able to spend so much time with their spouse/children etc. The latter of course will be dependent on how good your relationships are, and if you have a comfortable enough home to enjoy spending time in. However that's on an individual level - I really can't see a collective nostalgia for this time.

For the WWII nostalgia that's more about the sense of community that arose during the war years, but with this pandemic we have become so isolated from other people that I can't see anyone yearning for this time.

We’ll be looking back to pre 2020 with nostalgia. Children will ask what was it like to go to a concert or football match and be so close to strangers. They’ll also ask how it was when people didn’t have to wear masks in stores or public spaces.

I’m not kidding, Watch.

I'm sorry who looks back with fondness at WW2?
it was a very sad and trying part of history. I dont know anyone who has any positive thoughts of it and the people I did know who lived in that time ( grandparents who have since passed away) certainly didnt retain any sort of longing or fondness towards it.

It'll be an interesting study in civics, I think.

The processes that the government used to seize control and (at times) bypass parliament will be quite interesting to look at, once we're not actually living in them.

In all seriousness, I am praying that my child will look back on this time with rosy tinted glasses (if not full on nostalgia).

Because that will mean that I have protected her from the worst of it, and even managed to paint fun and silliness onto the walls of her shrunken world.

If I am successful, she will remember the silly family days, the cuddling up in bed, the family film nights with popcorn, the walks that me and dh jolly her along on (when I don't feel jolly inside) and the long giggly phone calls with friends.

Not the other stuff.

@StressedTired agree that nostalgia from WWII comes from people who didn't live through it. When I was little it wasn't much talked about. We didn't even have minute's silences or anything - they did in the immediate aftermath but not by the 70s. Certainly not street parties for significant dates.

People didn't want to think about it. They wanted to move forward. It was only much later that the WWII nostalgia machine came along, and it was largely driven by people born in the 50s and 60s.

I think this will be the same. It's a horrible time. Once it's over I won't want to think about it again. Doubtless some fool 20 years down the line will dredge it all up for whatever purpose they wish to pin on it. Maybe they'll even make "stay the fuck at home" tea towels? It'll be bullshit and false nostalgia though, just like all the talk of WWII has been from the 90s till now.

No. Or not me anyway.
104,000 dead and counting, many of which entirely preventable had a more competent government been in charge.

No one I know/knew who actually lived through WW2 looked back on it with anything other than a pragmatic realism, and a determination that nothing like it must ever happen again.

The people who do look back on WW2 with nostalgia appear to be people who were born after it ended, and feel like they missed out somehow.

Mark Francois, I'm looking at you, son.

I think certain people in lucky situations will look back fondly on parts of it.
For example, DH and I have been wfh since March. It was hard when DD was off nursery but now she’s back, mornings are easier as we’re not rushing off to work, we get more time with her in the evenings as we can pick her up earlier. We also get little bits of housework done over weekday lunchtimes so the house stays nicer and we don’t have to spend any weekend time cleaning.
That (obviously!) doesn’t make a global pandemic “worth it”. But there are little factors like that that I will probably miss. And if we have another child in a year or so, and spent the first year of them at nursery rushing back and forth between home, work and nursery pick ups I’ll probably look back fondly on this time with DD where we get to spend more time with her than we’d initially expected when I went back to work, which was only in March.

No, the sheer volume of easily accessed personal testimony of this pandemic should knock the wind out of the sails of anyone trying to sugarcoat it.

Mark Francois looks like a toad.

< sorry for derail😁>

@Aimee1987

I'm sorry who looks back with fondness at WW2? it was a very sad and trying part of history. I dont know anyone who has any positive thoughts of it and the people I did know who lived in that time ( grandparents who have since passed away) certainly didnt retain any sort of longing or fondness towards it.

Nostalgia and fondness aren’t quite the same are they?

People definitely look back with nostalgia about WW2, singing in the underground while London was being blown to bits overhead etc. It’s a source of pride for many people. I don’t really understand it, but it definitely happens.