The good old days

Just a quick post before I return my copy of Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!). The following passage is a satire of something that frequently annoys me, which is a false sense of nostalgia. It's from a recurring section in the book called "Stephen Speaks for Me," by the "oldest man in the world."

"A lot of senior citizens will tell you that they miss the 'good old days.' Not me. I never cared for them much. Besides, what was so good about them? Between 1918 and 1920, close to 100 million people died of Spanish Flu. Whoopee! Break out the party hats.

Perhaps these same seniors miss the Great Depression, too. I know I have fond memories of beating a hobo for scraps of cantaloupe rind. Ah, if only that bloody bindle could fit in my scrapbook.

Oh, and let's not forget the joy of racism....No, the only good thing about the past is that the Chicago Cubs would occasionally win the World Series. Everything else was Nazis and disease."

(p. 28)

from Colbert, Stephen. I Am America (And So Can You!) New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2007.