“Ștefan Șerban, 69, sitting on a bench with his friend Nicolae Carja, 74, said life had been better under the former Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu. “We were a rich country then,” he said. “Industry, petrol, gas, goldmines. And no debt.””
I swear to God, I feel like the global rise in far-right parties has less to do with any kind of global cabal, and more to do with the fact that Boomers everywhere are powered by nostalgia. Seems like Boomers everywhere will stop at nothing to bring back the world of their parents that they never experienced.
Just look at how much of Russia’s foreign policy is basically “damn, remember when we were the USSR?”
Read a book called 'Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler. He wrote it around 1970 and pretty much predicted everything that happened since. “Future shock” was his term for the madness that people would embrace when they realized they couldn’t/wouldn’t deal with the changes that the shift from the Industrial Age to the Digital Era would bring.
He inspired a science fiction writer named John Brunner. Brunner’s book, "Stand On Zanzibar’ won the 1969 Hugo award for best science fiction novel. It’s set in the early 21st Century and features such crazy ideas as middle class adults needing room mates to make the rent, wide spread homelessness, AI, endless post-colonial wars, the internet, and music videos.
Not just boomers, Gen x. They’re literally more willing to believe that the earth shifted into an alternate universe before they’re willing to believe their own memory is fallible.
like all russian pensioners saying life was better under stalin since they could just move into an apartment of the people whose whole family was killed.
Similar thing happened to the copper mines of Hungary, at one point it became so expensive to mine it was cheaper and easier to shut them off, at least temporarily. We potentially even have some gold in the same mine, it’s just allegedly so deep no current technology is able to mine them.
Same with the local closed coalmines, but with environmental concerns, and my house is sinking because of them. However, there’s way more conspiracy theory is out there about them.
They were probably very drunk in '89.
Otherwise they would have remembered that the dude got clipped for using the country as his own personal bank account.
Nostalgia for being oppressed is in full force.
“Ștefan Șerban, 69, sitting on a bench with his friend Nicolae Carja, 74, said life had been better under the former Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceauşescu. “We were a rich country then,” he said. “Industry, petrol, gas, goldmines. And no debt.””
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/17/between-a-mathematician-and-a-trump-loving-hooligan-romania-stark-presidential-choice
I swear to God, I feel like the global rise in far-right parties has less to do with any kind of global cabal, and more to do with the fact that Boomers everywhere are powered by nostalgia. Seems like Boomers everywhere will stop at nothing to bring back the world of their parents that they never experienced.
Just look at how much of Russia’s foreign policy is basically “damn, remember when we were the USSR?”
Read a book called 'Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler. He wrote it around 1970 and pretty much predicted everything that happened since. “Future shock” was his term for the madness that people would embrace when they realized they couldn’t/wouldn’t deal with the changes that the shift from the Industrial Age to the Digital Era would bring.
I’m reading it right now. I still can’t believe that a 55-year-old book could still describe aspects of my life to such accuracy!
It gets even worse.
He inspired a science fiction writer named John Brunner. Brunner’s book, "Stand On Zanzibar’ won the 1969 Hugo award for best science fiction novel. It’s set in the early 21st Century and features such crazy ideas as middle class adults needing room mates to make the rent, wide spread homelessness, AI, endless post-colonial wars, the internet, and music videos.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/stand-on-zanzibar-john-brunner/7252770?ean=9781250781222&next=t
Now I’ll have to read that too. Thanks!
One more thing…
USSR foreign policy was basically “Damn, remember when we were an empire?”
Not just boomers, Gen x. They’re literally more willing to believe that the earth shifted into an alternate universe before they’re willing to believe their own memory is fallible.
But the world of the Boomer’s parents was ww1 into ww2. It was a pretty big deal
like all russian pensioners saying life was better under stalin since they could just move into an apartment of the people whose whole family was killed.
“They yearn for the mines”.
Except it became so expensive to run them.
Similar thing happened to the copper mines of Hungary, at one point it became so expensive to mine it was cheaper and easier to shut them off, at least temporarily. We potentially even have some gold in the same mine, it’s just allegedly so deep no current technology is able to mine them.
Same with the local closed coalmines, but with environmental concerns, and my house is sinking because of them. However, there’s way more conspiracy theory is out there about them.
I was memeing my friend, but ty for the info, it’s interesting to learn. Upvoted.
They were probably very drunk in '89. Otherwise they would have remembered that the dude got clipped for using the country as his own personal bank account.
Rich? They were poor AF and everybody knew it, it was a rolling joke in the west.