Talking Tuesday: The Poverty of the Past

I'm not normally a fan of Megan McArdle's writing, but I think in this case, she's hit the nail on the head.  She writes in response to Joni Ernst's post about the poverty of her upbringing--a post that prompted much teasing and laughter on social media.  (Rod Dreher's commentary on the same is also worth reading). McArdle reminds us why history is important--it reminds us of where we've come from, and more importantly, who we are.  We forget at our peril.

"In every generation, we forget how much poorer we used to be, and then we forget that we have forgotten. We focus on the things that seem funny or monstrous or quaint and darling. Somehow the simplest and most important fact -- the immense differences between their living standards and ours -- slides right past our eye. And when Ernst tried to remind us, people didn't say "Wow, we've really come a long way"; they pointed and laughed."

Megan McArdle, "When Bread Bags Weren't Funny" Bloombergview.com blog, January 29, 2015

I'm less concerned by the forgetting as by the disdain with which our modern society treats the past.  Forgetfulness is common--natural even--to the process of getting older--of change; to deride the past, to think it has nothing to teach us, to belittle the experience and memory of those who do remember, well, that is dangerous.