In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that people tend to romanticize the past, believing it was better than the present, even though they did not appreciate it at the time.
Brooks Atkinson's quote reflects on the human tendency to look back at previous eras with nostalgia, often overlooking the difficulties and challenges faced during those times. He argues that each generation experiences crises that feel unbearable in the moment, yet in retrospect, those same periods are often viewed as 'the good old days.' This highlights the paradox of how time can reshape our perceptions of the past and make us value what we once took for granted.
In practice
During a speech about changes in society, one might quote this to illustrate how perceptions of past eras can be misleading.
This nation was built by men who took risks-pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, businessmen who were not afraid of failure, scientists who were not afraid of the truth, thinkers who were not afraid of progress, dreamers who were not afraid of action.
People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.
I am frankly sick and tired of the political preachers telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?
History has its truth; and so has legend hers.
Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.
I think that the present is worth attention, one shouldn't sacrifice it to future conceptions of, of this future or that future.
Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype, from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything, or be anyone, what do you do with it?
Experience, already reduced to a group of impressions, is ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality through which no real voice has ever pierced on its way to us, or from us to that which we can only conjecture to be without.
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