Living In The Past Is Messing Up The Future

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” – Oscar Wilde

Populism certainly seems to be popular. If like me, you consider this political movement to be the harbinger of a white supremacist, sexist, homophobic apocalypse then you spend a good portion of your day rocking back and forth in the fetal position; okay, that’s hyperbole but it seems lies and exaggeration are the preferred communication methods of the day. But something occurred to me when observing the dust and cobwebs forming a cloud from the massed ranks of politicians in the Houses of Parliament. And it wasn’t the fact that they looked remarkably similar to the grey-suited white males flanking the orange octogenarian President 44.

It occurred to me that the world contains people that are living n the past and want to go back there. Most these people are in Europe and North America. Most of them are white. But all of them are raging at an imagined theft of their privilege by outsiders or people who they think are less deserving than them. And in their eyes, those who are less deserving or stealing their privilege are foreigners, immigrants and the destitute who require societal support. Remember the good old days, they hear Drumpf say. Let’s take back our sovereignty Farage says and they lap it up, imagining the past through rose-tinted virtual reality specs that see no black or brown faces swamping their streets. The past. They obsess about it because it’s everything that they failed to be.

Here’s a personal tale that I hope serves as a useful anecdote. My family and I attended a christening recently and I had the pleasure of seeing extended family members that I haven't seen for far too long. As always, quite possibly the best part of it was reminiscing and looking at how much the kids had all grown. And as the memories continued to flow my brother and I got in to a very introspective discussion that illuminated my perspective on this age of anger. Because let’s face it, everyone is more than a little pissed. Anyway, it helped me to understand the hankering that so many of the populist followers have for the past. I hope it can do something for you.

So, me and my bro are chewing the fat and concluded that memories are interesting. Real profound right? But we delved a little deeper and recognised that it seems like the worst ones loiter in our minds while the best ones can be hard to cling on to. As we talked about the past, people that we had lost and the childhoods we had left behind, I realised that sharing stories of things we've lost is how we keep from really losing them. And dependent on the scenario remembering is easy - it's forgetting that's hard. But, the past is a false construct because you're looking at a different person (you then) through the eyes of a different person (you now). The same is true when you’re looking at a country or society. When it comes to memories the good and the bad rarely balance out; which is why it's so good to stay present. You don't remember what happened - what you remember becomes what happened.

So, my advice to my populist brothers and sisters is that if you really want to feel bitter, lost and guilty at not taking more control of your life then live on memory; the bitter live on memory and the optimists live on possibility. Your memories are behind you, not your life. Your life is ALWAYS ahead of you. And there’s no point believing that what’s ahead only looks good if it’s a mirror of what’s behind you.

And remember this. Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory.