It’s time to rev up the hype train, dear viewer.
Your childhood memories are getting a reboot!
That campy horror flick?
It’s being remade!
Your favorite 70s classic space opera?
Let’s make it again!
That 80s cartoon imploring you not to do drugs?
Nobody asked, but let’s make a sequel!
With all of these reboots, you’re likely either to be excited to relive your idealized childhood,
or infuriated that Hollywood just won’t leave it alone.
It’s obvious - there’s a spectre haunting popular culture: the specter of nostalgia.
While we may be quick to blame nostalgia on lazy Hollywood profiteering, our willingness
to consume nostalgia can tell us a great deal about our present world.
The word nostalgia, itself, was coined in the 1600s from the Greek words for homecoming and pain.
Now the term means much more than that.
Nostalgia evokes a yearning for the past, that while somewhat painful, can also bring joy.
Today isn’t the first time the world has seen an “outbreak” of nostalgia.
Philosopher Svetlana Boym argues that nostalgia has historically coincided with revolution.
For example, the French Revolution erupted in nostalgia for Ancient Rome.
Women wore togas to symbolize liberty, men wore Roman-style hats to show off their freedom,
and the Roman hero Hercules saw renewed popularity -- they put him on coins and erected statues
in his honor.
Tales of King Arthur swept England and America during the Industrial Revolution; the moral
anchor of chivalry was comforting as massive factories and railroads took over the landscape.
When the world is tumultuous, the past provides us with the certainty of something that will
never change.
Nostalgia today, then, may be a symptom of our own revolution: the digital revolution.
Having a home computer may be old news these days, but the ease and speed with which we
can consume media is unprecedented.
Rather than being immersed in the culture of the day, we have simultaneous access to
thousands of years of music, and a hundred years of film.
With a terrifying amount of choice, we retreat to familiar labels like #90skids.
At the same time, our devices are in a state of perpetual revolution.
The way we shop, communicate, even the way we hail taxis changes faster than we can adapt.
With so much change, and so many options, should we be so surprised that we long for static,
unchanging past?
But does nostalgia mean we’re stuck in the past?
Can we create anything new when we’re busy rebooting Spiderman for the 8th time?
"Hey everyone."
For philosopher Walter Benjamin, nostalgia is always full of the “here-and-now:”
every reimagining of the past involves our own, very modern, conceptions.
The past can help us leap into the future - the French Revolution wasn’t trying to
blindly recreate the Roman Republic.
Instead, they loosely borrowed from it to fit their own vision of the future.
So too can superhero reboots and Star Wars sequels use old ideas to analyze our own time
in new ways.
The original Planet of the Apes was a cautionary tale about nuclear war.
Now the new franchise is a cautionary tale about how technology can pervert humanity.
Star Trek used to be about cosmopolitanism - now it's about space terrorism.
But as easily at this nostalgia can propel us into the future, a politically driven nostalgia
can help lead nations down a dangerous path.
Mussolini’s fascism was named after the same Roman fasces that were celebrated during
the French Revolution.
Monuments and buildings designed in the likeness of Greek and Roman architecture exploded throughout
Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
What do you think dear viewer?
Is nostalgia a mindless retreat into the good old days?
Or can it help us explore the future with a few familiar faces.
Before you go, take a few more moments and click HERE to watch our episode on Kanye West,
where we delve into what Yeezus teaches us about celebrity culture and philosophy.
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And one last thing: If you're looking for more smart stuff on YouTube, visit our friends
at TED-Ed.
They makes tons of great videos on philosophy, science, history and more.
Give Plato a tickle to watch our collaboration with them on Plato’s best, and worst, ideas.
As always, thanks for watching, Beloved Viewer.