Back in the Day, My Ass
 
I'm sick and tired of hearing about how much better things were in the past.  It's total bullshit.  Enduring such assertions pisses me off to no end.  In reality, things usually stay the same.  Sometimes, there are spurts when things go really well(Renaissance) or things go really bad(Dark Ages).  Sometimes, like say the Middle Ages, things go really well for some(Asians and Arabs) while things suck for others(Europeans).  Generally, things stay in some weird state of equilibrium, if you take the right perspective.  It's even in our genes - As a species, we have been genetically stable for 100,000 years.  A close look at today will show that this is the case today.

People mostly talk of the loss of civility.  Sure, there are some elements of etiquette based on common sense should be maintained but just because we no longer follow an arbitrary list of guidelines that are meant to preserve society as we know it doesn't mean that everything has gone to shit.  The people who came up with this shit and perpetuated it also actively oppressed women and minorities.  How in the world can you consider these people to be more civil in this light?  People are less civil because people are more aware.  People won't blindly obey someone or automatically respect someone just because it is mandated by an archaic set of rules.  (I think I can write a whole seperate piece on this....I just might do that!)

A lot of things are better now but people either have their heads too far up their asses to realize it or they find excuses to debunk the idea that something could be better.  Just recently, they showed that AFI 100 best songs show.  On the show, everyone was going gaga over Fred Astaire and to a lesser extent, Gene Kelly.  There certainly was a certain grace, poise and charisma that they both possessed that allowed them to do their magic onscreen.  But now, we have Savion Glover who is undoubtedly the greatest tap dancer to ever grace the Earth.  While Fred and Gene were magical, what Savion Glover does is pure genius.  He is redefining the boundaries of his art and at the same time is doing it better than anyone who has come before.

Many complain about the vanity of athletes today and speak respectfully of athletes of yesteryears.  They seem to forget that a vast majority of those athletes from the past were racist, wife-beating alcoholics in their own right.  A new level of dedication coupled with advancement in science and health has made today's athletes what they are today.  Look at the last decade of baseball - after hitting a low point with a strike, baseball has never been more exciting.  The NFL has found a way eliminate the creation of dynasties and defacto hierarchies that ruin the suspense in the chase for the Lombardi trophy.  Yes, the athletes are still jackasses for the most part but it's more fun to watch them play.

There's a revolution brewing in the music industry.  For far too long, the record companies controlled what we were supposed to listen to and like.  The government's sqaushing of Napster is only a minor defeat in a battle for freedom for music lovers by way of a more democratic access to music.  Musicians have found unorthodox ways to get their music out to the public and thereby slowly weaning themselves from record companies and Clear Channel.   Although things look promising, judgement needs to be reserved for now.

On the average, classical and jazz musicians are better today than they ever were.  Many music snobs talk about how much better, say, the Berlin Philharmonic was and how there's no one to fill Herbert von Karajan's shoes.  Well, Berlin has now had two music directors who exceed HVK's musical and artistic accomplishments.  Of living conductors, we have Abbado, Boulez, Kleiber, Temirkanov, Gergiev, Rattle, Barenboim, Harnoncourt, Haitink, Giulini.  They all can hold their own with the ones from the "Golden Era".

Actors have never been better.  The "Golden Age" of Hollywood was supported mainly by personalities.  Russell Crowe is slowly becoming the next Brando displaying the same prodigious talent and animal magnetism that Brando had.  Ther also is Edward Norton, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Denzel, Tony Shalhoub.  Also, there has never been a time when there have been as many good and talented actresses as there are today.   

Sure, there are many things that do suck now like the Bush administration, rogue states developing nuclear power, fundamentalism of all kinds that seems to be cropping up everywhere, rise of several prominent dictators, overpopulation, environment going to shit, etc.  Of course, the people who complain about what sucks today don't mention any of these things.  They just mention all the bullshit that I just wrote about.