Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Original poster

Will we ever look back with nostalgia?

202 replies

Christinaismyperson · 27/01/2021 09:38

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?

OP posts:

zoemum2006 · 27/01/2021 11:50

The nostalgia for WW2 comes from boomers: people born after the war.

I hate this horrible time and I ache for my old life sometimes.

pommedeterre · 27/01/2021 12:00

I won't ever try and deny how hideous and crap this was for everyone to some extent (the spectrum is large).

I found in the summer lots of people told me they hadn't minded/had enjoyed lockdown and I was so shocked. I felt deep rage tbh. I think the brain tricks us about the past.

LakeGeneva · 27/01/2021 12:01

Re individual accounts about WWII passed on within families, there's often a degree of rewriting that happens, audience dependent. Also post traumatic growth is a known phenomenon - possibly behind the thinking of phrases such as "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" etc. But war is not a positive thing. Pandemics are not positive things. This is reflected in the collective response to WWII which was to not dwell on it, not have endless memorials, ceremonies, re enactments, WWII dress up days etc. Those were all spearheaded by people who were at at least one remove. And who had agendas of their own.

pommedeterre · 27/01/2021 12:02

@Kokeshi123

No. There'll be a bit of salute-the-heroes stuff about the healthcare workers who did double shifts and held the hands of the dying, but for most people this is a passive, sedentary and boring experience. There is absolutely nothing glamorous about it.

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.
I don't actually agree with this, though. The experience of the pandemic will be deeply boring to most of us, but the politics going on are actually pretty dramatic!

I agree, totally fascinating module to study at uni in the future. Especially when linked to the wank stain that is Brexit and the turd that is/was Trump. Really hugely busy part of history we are living (surviving?) through.

CloudPop · 27/01/2021 12:10

@zoemum2006 I agree. An actual physical sense of ache.

Pissedoff1234 · 27/01/2021 12:11

I'm sure some will. If the pandemic ended tomorrow, I would probably do so in a few years time.

We, so far, haven't suffered the big stuff. No one I am close to has suffered from Covid too badly or died (I do know people who have died but not in my immediate circle). DH's job is doing well in the pandemic and we are financially ok with just his wage and I've been furloughed from my job. All my children live at home, we all get on (within reason obviously)and me and DH enjoy each other's company (again mostly ). We live in a nice house with a garden. As it stands we are making the best of it and spending time as a family.

Yes of course this could change in an instant with an illness or a job loss and then I expect I wouldn't look back with any nostalgia.

I'm not completely loving the pandemic though. Miss time alone, my wider family, my job and all the other stuff that is closed. I'm worried about the virus and the state of the world right now but after it's over, it might be possible to think about the stuff that was good but not for everyone. Those that have lost loved ones or lost their business, livelihoods or homes certainly won't. I expect this is the same for WW2 too.

LakeGeneva · 27/01/2021 12:14

Me too.

Don't get me wrong, we've tried to and sometimes been able to find joy in small things. But that's been down to us, we've managed/engineered that. The situation overall is shit. At least people have stopped posting that fucking Kitty O'fuckingMeara poem though. Actually, I bet that'll be on a fucking tea towel in 40 years.

ChristmasinJune · 27/01/2021 12:15

Parts of it.
I already have nostalgia for the first lockdown. The one where the weather was nice enough to spend hours having picnics and building dens in the woods.

If somebody has been involved in making things significantly better EG giving the vaccine or running testing centres for example. They might be nostalgic about "playing their part"

People might be nostalgic about the socially distanced VE Day celebrations or NHS clap.

In the whole though, the big difference is that WW2 was all about community spirit and pulling together.

This is all about staying away from people and dobbing your neighbour in.... don't think I'll be nostalgic for that.

LakeGeneva · 27/01/2021 12:15

That was to @Cloudpop and @zoemum2006.

unmarkedbythat · 27/01/2021 12:19

I've already seen some people saying how sad they will be when it is all over because they have just loved the chance to stay in their lovely houses with gadgets and gardens and plenty of money and enjoy time together. I am glad they have been spared the misery that lockdown has been for so many but not really able to get on board with their celebration of it. It just seems so tone deaf. Other people in their situation at least acknowledge their privilege and recognise they have had it comparatively easy, the ones I am thinking of just go with the "it has been such a wonderful time for us".

But anyway yes, of course, if people can look back on WW2 with nostalgia, the same will happen with this era.

LakeGeneva · 27/01/2021 12:25

I do wonder about those people who I've heard going on about how it's been a nice wee break for them. I guess the death toll doesn't filter through and maybe they didn't like their lives very much beforehand which sort of begs the question as to why they previously made the choices they did. I mean if all they ever wanted out of life was to sit at home and never interact with others presumably they could have done so. Weird. Agree with you though @unmarkedbythat that they all seem to have big houses and gardens. You'd think that would have made them happy in normal times but apparently not.

ginghamtablecloths · 27/01/2021 12:27

I can't imagine feeling nostalgia about this pandemic once it becomes a distant memory. Who can say that it's as bad as a World War? Hopefully it won't last as long.

Both my parents were 20 when WWII began. It took away their youth and in a way it hardened them as many problems which came along later were felt to be small fry by comparison. Nostalgic? No, but it affected them for many years afterwards.

Thatwentbadly · 27/01/2021 12:29

People who look back fondly to ww2 are often people who didn’t live through it.

There are parts of this pandemic that I’m finding positive and it’s not as bad a ww2 so yes I believe people will look back at it fondly.

lllllllllll · 27/01/2021 12:31

WTF? Do you not know of a very real mental health disorder called PTSD?

@southeastdweller Oh don’t be so ridiculous. That poster said “much like the war”, people will be traumatised by the smell of hand sanitiser and the sight of facemasks. People in the war were traumatised by unimaginable horrors - shell shock, bombs exploding over their heads. You’re not seriously comparing that to smelling a bit of hand sanitiser?

Yohoheaveho · 27/01/2021 12:32

I think I will feel nostalgic about the clean air during the first lockdown

augetout · 27/01/2021 12:33

Maybe brief bits from the summer- good weather, rainbows on everyone’s windows, clapping on thursdays. But no I can’t see the pandemic in general making anyone nostalgic.

Anybody enjoying life now must be both unaffected by the death toll and lost no relatives or friends and must also be in a pretty privileged position with work, finances and home life.

RuleWithAWoodenFoot · 27/01/2021 12:36

I agree with that too. Once time is up on stuff being secret or whatever, it will be fascinating to know what 'they' really did know. What other things we've been lied to about.

unmarkedbythat · 27/01/2021 12:37

@lllllllllll

WTF? Do you not know of a very real mental health disorder called PTSD?

@southeastdweller Oh don’t be so ridiculous. That poster said “much like the war”, people will be traumatised by the smell of hand sanitiser and the sight of facemasks. People in the war were traumatised by unimaginable horrors - shell shock, bombs exploding over their heads. You’re not seriously comparing that to smelling a bit of hand sanitiser?

Wouldn't that depend a lot on what your experience was? A hcp working in ICU at the peak of pandemic could well find something very triggering that to you seems daft.

LakeGeneva · 27/01/2021 12:39

@lllllllllll PTSD triggers are many and varied and often involve minute perceptual encounters that are otherwise unnoticed. So yes, the smell of hand sanitiser could do it. Scent is a really common trigger as it goes, because a lot of the time people don't consciously think about what they're smelling, but their brain still registers it.

The vast majority of people living with PTSD will never cower under a table shaking because they've heard a loud bang. More likely they'll be out and about and get a whiff of what a certain room smelled of, or the light will glance off a surface in a certain way, or they'll feel something underfoot that is like a surface from the time of the traumatic event, and their memory trips them back into it.

It's a very misunderstood condition.

RichardMarxisinnocent · 27/01/2021 12:44

@Thewiseoneincognito

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.

Sorry, are you suggesting concerts and football matches with crowds will never ever happen again? If so what makes you think that will be the case?

RichardMarxisinnocent · 27/01/2021 12:45

Oh, abs there is no way in hell I am ever going to look back on this with nostalgia.

LucilleTheVampireBat · 27/01/2021 12:47

@southeastdweller

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 very much agree.

TheWitchwithNoName · 27/01/2021 12:49

No. We’ve lost both DP’s parents in the space of 5 months (one very sick but would be here if the NHS hadn’t shut down and one to COVID). Absolute worst time

Robingtonbyford · 27/01/2021 12:49

No. I don't think anyone will look back fondly on a time where we couldn't be with our loved ones and friends. These are usually the people who help you through a difficult time.

RichardMarxisinnocent · 27/01/2021 12:49

The government are not going to give that level of control up easily. Way to go everyone.
Not sure I understand this, are you saying they will keep us in lockdown and the majority of the economy closed forever?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9