Societies' relationship with the past is often shaped not by historical knowledge but by the gaps created by the present. For this reason, longing for the past is not a form of remembrance; it is a reflex of refuge. People turn to the past not because they remember it, but because they cannot carry the present.
The “golden age” discourses that we encounter today on different ideological grounds are the most visible form of this refuge. Some point to the 7th century as the “era of bliss” and describe it as the peak of justice and morality. Some cling to the rise of the Ottoman Empire, trying to bring the heyday of might, conquest and splendor to the present. Others refer to the founding years of the Republic, making the rise of a nation born out of poverty an absolute model.
Although these three orientations seem to be opposed to each other, they actually meet on the same intellectual ground:
Reinventing the past by a mind that cannot build a future.
Because history is not the issue.
The issue is today.
SO WHAT WOULD WE FIND IF WE REALLY WENT BACK?
Any nostalgia without asking this question is incomplete.
One should ask anyone today who desires to go back to the 7th century:
Is justice the only thing that awaits you there, or is it tribal warfare, limited living conditions and a fierce struggle for survival?
The question is the same for anyone who wants to go back to the most powerful periods of the Ottoman Empire:
Is it the splendor of the palace that attracts you, or is it the heavy tax burden, limited social mobility and the necessity to live under absolute authority for the millions of people outside that splendor?
Also for those who want to go back to the founding years of the Republic:
What made that period truly “ideal”? Was it poverty, the devastation of war, scarce resources and drastic transformations? Or is it the meaning we attach to it today?
Most of these questions remain unanswered.
Because if these questions are asked, nostalgia is weakened.
The truth is:
Those who want to return to the past do not want the past itself; they want the imagination of the past produced from the present.
Because the real past is not a place to escape from the present.
WHY DOES THE PAST ALWAYS LOOK BETTER?
Because the past is not remembered as it was.
It is remembered selectively.
The human mind does not work like an archive; it works like an editor.
- He deletes what he doesn't like,
- It suppresses the painful,
- It simplifies the complex,
- And it leaves behind a “sanitized” story.
This is why “golden age” narratives are not historical but psychological.
Not the past itself,
The meaning attached to the past is glorified.
And that meaning is produced by the shortcomings of today.
HOW DOES DESPAIR PRODUCE NOSTALGIA?
At this point we come to the heart of the matter:
Why does a society so insistently return to the past?
The answer is simple but disturbing:
Because he has no strength and faith to go forward.
The human mind cannot live in a vacuum.
It either clings to the future or to the past.
You are in front of a society:
- If there is no credible target,
- If there is no confidence that you can achieve this goal,
- And if there is no collective will to carry it,
the idea of the future collapses.
And at that point this feeling arises:
“It's not going to get better.”
This feeling is despair.
ESCAPE FROM DESPAIR: THE BACKWARD MOVEMENT OF THE MIND
When hope is lost, the future looks like a threat, not an opportunity.
Uncertainty becomes frightening. The struggle becomes meaningless.
In this case the mind retreats instead of moving forward.
But this retreat is temporal, not spatial.
One gravitates towards the past.
Because it is the past:
- It doesn't change,
- It's known,
- And there is no risk of failure.
That is why the past is the safest refuge in times of despair.
THE GOLDEN AGE NOT REALITY, FICTION
But there is a critical break here:
People do not return to the past as it was.
He returns by rebuilding it.
The real past is full of contradictions.
There are injustices, conflicts, inequalities.
In this state, the past cannot be a refuge.
So the mind transforms the past:
- It erases imperfections,
- It suppresses pain,
- And it makes it a perfect “golden age”.
But this “golden age” never existed.
It is a fiction born out of today's needs.
PAST: A FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE OR AN ANESTHETIC?
At this point the past is no longer a field of research.
It becomes a function.
Background:
- It is used to cover up today's inadequacy,
- It is used to avoid responsibility,
- And it is used to legitimize inaction.
So after a while the past becomes a kind of ideological anesthesia.
It comforts you, but it doesn't change you.
It numbs but it doesn't cure.
FACING REALITY: WHAT IS NOT IN THE PAST?
Today, those who want to go back to the past most often ignore this:
In the past, there is no such thing:
- Today's know-how,
- Today's technological possibilities,
- Today's spaces of individual freedom (no matter how controversial),
- And most importantly: today's experience.
But more importantly, there is no such thing:
You have no consciousness today.
Because the past is different not only spatially but also mentally.
You can't go back there with your “present mind”.
Therefore, the desire to return to the past is based on an impossible demand:
Both living in the past and having a present consciousness.
This is not possible.
NOT ATTACHMENT TO THE PAST, BUT DETACHMENT FROM THE FUTURE
This whole picture shows us this:
The intense attachment to the past is not a sign of consciousness;
is a sign of despair.
Because people: Not because they know the past,
they cling to it because they don't believe in the future.
If a society is constantly talking about “going back”, it is actually not moving forward.
If it is always talking about “where did we come from”, it has lost the question of “where are we going”.
And perhaps the clearest truth is this:
The human mind either moves forward with hope or backward with despair.
There is no middle.
I will say that history is not a place to go back to.
History is a road traveled.
Those who want to turn back from that path are the ones who are afraid to walk.
The strength of a society does not depend on the background to which it belongs;
is measured by how it can build a future on that past.
And the future
It always takes more courage than in the past.