Boy do we love the good old days. When life was sweeter and had meaning. Now everyone's fond of saying “back in the day” (BITD).
“BITD” really works to glorify the past doesn't it?
Perhaps because it implies that we're not "in the day" now; that now we're in the night or some cloudy, overcast time, and BITD conjures up a time when all was brighter and better than it is now.
Seems harmless enough. What's the harm in a little nostalgia? The problem is that it resigns us to the downward spiral we think we're in.
And that's our point; what's really driving our BITD narrative—that we're unhappy with the way things are now. Even with all today's new technology, life was better BITD, and wouldn't it be great to make today and tomorrow like how it was back then.
Today things don't work anymore, and no one follows
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we're not thinking big
Focusing on BITD with statements like “Make America Great Again” stops us from inventing completely new systems, new ways of thinking, doing things and even new ways of living and working.
BITD thinking has us think of our future as a slightly better version than what we have now: as increased miles per gallon, not teleportation; as prolonging life, not rejuvenating or regenerating life; earning more, not enjoying more, as defeating terrorism and not unleashing human potential. Americans talk about bringing jobs back instead of reinventing the idea of work in a new era of near zero cost solar energy, and free labour from battery driven, fusion driven robots.
Nano technology, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, digital money, big data, the Internet of things are happening now, and BITD thinking will have us act like 21st century Luddites instead of molding the possibilities they