The Big Picture: In Defense of Nostalgia

[Tzekelkan]

Great video, Bob. I agree with you entirely on the nostalgia issue and the need for perspective.

It reminded me of a, ahem, discussion I had with some dude on the gametrailers.com video comment section. He was calling EA terrorists for ruining some game (I think it was Red Alert 3, can't remember), so I told him he should turn on the TV more and see the work of actual terrorists that kill people, and consider the world's bigger problems instead of comparing EA to murderers. I got a lot of 'thumbs down' votes for my comments, for some reason, while his rebuttal was basically "you can't trust everything you see on TV". WTF.

 

[PrinceofPersia]

That's the problem with left-wing people. They always think that their political viewpoint is "intellectual" or "progressive", and everybody that doesn't agree with them are "old-fashioned" and "ignorant". Just like it's wrong write off all remakes of old movies, it's wrong to write off people with different political opinions than yours.

Until you hear what their saying and come to the conclusion that there a few bananas short of a bunch. Or that they advocate discrimination based on fear of the other. Or that they fear change and loss of power because they think the new 'majority' folks in charge will do to them, what they have been doing to other 'minorities' up to the present.

The sad matter of fact is that thanks to the sensationalist media we have today, only these outlying fringe extremists are being given air time. The rest of us, well we got work, kids, a house to pay for, a life to live, games to play, and other activities that take up our time.

Oh and thank you Bob for pointing out the bad "nostalgia" to the rest of the world. Personally I love the new Thundercats, MLP, and umm....no I cannot honestly say it, I DISLIKE Michael Bay's Transformers...wait I like the new Captain America movie it was freaking sweeet! Yup Thundercats 2011, MLP:FiM, and Captain America: First Avenger are a-okay with me.

 

[Blind Sight]

I must agree with Bob, awesome video.

The devil was the first whig, and he's been winning for 500 years

Yes, free us from "Serfdom" by bringing back actual Serfdom, nobility, rigidly defined class structres, church and state linked together, supression of any idea that might come up to challenge the status quo regardless of its legitimacy and all that. Oh the Irony.

Besides, your ideology came about in the early 1800s cenutry and had its massive failures. Mass famines in India, widespread poverty and horrible instability. The US had numerous finacial crashes due to lack of regulation over the course of the 19th century. The Great Depression was just the worst because of the rise of the cash economy (A larger precentage of people were using money more frequently, farmers before the Industrial Revolution usually had little money but could generally feed themselves and often could barter for things they could not make at home, once cities emerge people need to buy food and once industrial manufacturing begins stores no longer accept jars of jam as payment). Now, Banks and Finance have been deregulatd and the result, recession. Canada and the rest of the world's banks did not try to pull such scams because they were better monitored and kept on a shorter leash.

Zor

You do realize that one of the primary factors for the 2007 financial crash was the housing bubble burst? That was directly the result of government intervention (mostly thanks to Clinton's housing plans in the 90s) which created artificial demand. Government intervention into the economy, I will remind you, is traditionally a belief held by the centre or left. Also, the Great Depression was actually accelerated by government programs that attempted to halt it. Go look at unemployment rates in the 30s and you'll notice massive spikes whenever FDR created more New Deal social programs. In contrast, the depression that occurred in the 20s resulted in no excess government spending, in fact, the American government actually decreased spending, and the economy recovered within a year. I'm not even a conservative, I'm just pointing out how completely biased and selective your use of history is.

 

[triggrhappy94]

That really put things into perspective.
I'm alittle embarrased to admit it, but I can say I learned something.

I would have like if you, Bob, went alittle more into ranting against [certain people and parties], but I unstanded why you didnt, and ultimately things are better off.

 

[Aureliano]

Wow, that political thread kinda came out of nowhere. Let me paraphrase this episode: "Complaining about nostalgia in media? That's dumb. Complaining about nostalgia in politics? That's smart." The fact that the latter is a more apparent problem does not mean the former is not a problem too.

Think about the Brady Bunch movie. Brilliant satire, whose point is largely this: you don't get to be the Brady family without the Brady universe set up around you, because that television lifestyle depends on an entire culture. Nostalgia for an 80s movie depends on nostalgia for 80s culture. The 'smaller' problem (nostalgia for media) is just a microcosm of the 'larger' problem.

And let's not assume that the Republicans (yes I know who you were talking about) are the only ones who imagine a better time: the 50s without the 60s to follow it.

The democrats imagine a 60s Great Society, except all the political free-for-all has already been done so everybody who should have rights has them, works hard and nobody breaks the law anymore, stages sit-ins or does drugs. Everybody still goes to church, but now we're unitarians instead of protestants. Everybody gets married and makes or adopts kids, but now the state raises their kids. So we get the 'benevolent' big brother. I'm not saying I wouldn't prefer it to the former fantasy, however it's still a weird fantasy with weird consequences. It's a little more Brave New World than 1984 but it's still not a good scene.

 

[RJ Dalton]

In defense of the inevitable new He-Man movie, if you ever saw the last He-Man movie that got made, then really, then you know why the people who loved the show back in the day (poor, dumb schmucks that they are) *want* a new movie.

Edit: Oh, and Bob, that opening was awesome.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Snip

RJ approves and rewards you with +2 respect points.

 

[TheSchaef]

I don't really consider concern that we are moving from ideals that liberated and modernized half the planet, and towards ideals that have failed nearly everywhere they have been tried, and in some instances have brought with them the slaughter of countless millions of people (and no, I am NOT talking about the Holocaust), to be a "nostalgia problem".

Say what you will about the Beck-ian acolytes, at least they're not burning down their city out of a bizarre sense of disenchantment with their collectivist society.

 

[XDravond]

(funny that only really US people call themselves "Americans" since there's a small piece of land called "South America" where they are not "Americans"... Never really thought of why but if you have an answer please tell me)

It's also funny that there's another small peice of land called "North America" conveniently located "North" of "South America" and that the United States of "America" is located in the "North" part. It's the "United States of America", therefore we are Americans. America is part of the country's name. Canada has Canadians, Mexico has Mexicans, and down south Brazil has Brazillians, Columbia has Columbians, Argentina has Argentinians, etc etc. It's not the continent you call yourself after, it's the country, and in our case, it's the USA, not just the US.

Well your right (of course =D) it's USA, but I hear every now and then references to "European" people/culture is (or was) a certain way but it really can not get more wrong since so many very different countries with extremely different ways. The interesting in this is that a "State" could be a sovereign country and then be refereed after that states name. But really interesting is when people refer to America (not the people) they mean USA not the continent(s) I guess a lot of "names" is due to how a country was founded and language has evolved from that point. And to continue on this rather boring point, many people refer British people as English and same goes for the country, even though England is just a part of Great Britain (also funny a country uses "great" in their name ;-)

Ok should (probably) not write this late I go way to off topic...

 

[ecoho]

In Defense of Nostalgia

Are the rose tinted glasses always so bad?

Watch Video

im sorry bob but unless you can be objective you should never talk about politics otherwise you are no better then the right wing people you bash. i mean lets look at the other side for a second. Obama ram rods a healthcare system WE CANNOT SUPPORT!!!! into being against the majority of people's wishes, then we have Biden saying that the one birth law in china is a good idea........ personally i think both parties should be dissolved so people will actually have to vote for the man/woman instead of what party they are.

Not a fan of party politics myself, but I ask you this question: without the parties, how would you suggest a political hierarchy is formed in the United States? Their structure is largely based on the bi-partisan system.

who say we need a political hierarchy? we just need to have good men and women run for office and do the job they were elected to do no more of this party bullshit.

See, I don't disagree with you, but you're talking in feel-good soundbites. How would you approve Presidential nominees? How would you elect a President? How would the Senate and Congressional votes work? These are parts of the American political system that are partisan in their nature simply due to the two-party system being in place for so long. Basically, you couldn't run everyone as an independent in a system crafted for parties. What reforms do you believe would help create a system to benefit non-party politics?

why not? god forbid people would actually have to work for the office not have it work for them. now i have no clue how to answer your last question but let me give it a go. get rid of politicians i dont know about you but id rather not have people there who want to be there id rather have the guy who gets the job done and leaves.

 

[AkaDad]

I must agree with Bob, awesome video.

The devil was the first whig, and he's been winning for 500 years

Yes, free us from "Serfdom" by bringing back actual Serfdom, nobility, rigidly defined class structres, church and state linked together, supression of any idea that might come up to challenge the status quo regardless of its legitimacy and all that. Oh the Irony.

Besides, your ideology came about in the early 1800s cenutry and had its massive failures. Mass famines in India, widespread poverty and horrible instability. The US had numerous finacial crashes due to lack of regulation over the course of the 19th century. The Great Depression was just the worst because of the rise of the cash economy (A larger precentage of people were using money more frequently, farmers before the Industrial Revolution usually had little money but could generally feed themselves and often could barter for things they could not make at home, once cities emerge people need to buy food and once industrial manufacturing begins stores no longer accept jars of jam as payment). Now, Banks and Finance have been deregulatd and the result, recession. Canada and the rest of the world's banks did not try to pull such scams because they were better monitored and kept on a shorter leash.

Zor

You do realize that one of the primary factors for the 2007 financial crash was the housing bubble burst? That was directly the result of government intervention (mostly thanks to Clinton's housing plans in the 90s) which created artificial demand. Government intervention into the economy, I will remind you, is traditionally a belief held by the centre or left. Also, the Great Depression was actually accelerated by government programs that attempted to halt it. Go look at unemployment rates in the 30s and you'll notice massive spikes whenever FDR created more New Deal social programs. In contrast, the depression that occurred in the 20s resulted in no excess government spending, in fact, the American government actually decreased spending, and the economy recovered within a year. I'm not even a conservative, I'm just pointing out how completely biased and selective your use of history is.

I wasn't going to comment, but when I read this I had to. You are seriously misinformed. In the late 90's, Republicans repealed the Glass-Steagall act, which deregulated the financial industry. That is what caused the recession, not government intervention.

The repeal of provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act effectively removed the separation that previously existed between investment banking which issued securities and commercial banks which accepted deposits. The deregulation also removed conflict of interest prohibitions between investment bankers serving as officers of commercial banks. This repeal directly contributed to the severity of the Financial crisis of 2007-2011 by allowing Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors' money that was held in commercial banks owned or created by the investment firms.

Those unemployment spikes under FDR happened when government cut back on spending, the opposite of what you're claiming. I don't know where you get your information from, but you should stop getting it from that source.

 

[Siege_TF]

On the other hand parties like the Tea party and Green Party are inportant as, say, House Slytherin in Harry Potter because it's really convenient to have all your lunatics in one place.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I would give the flack Nintendo gets a little more respect if people didn't just blindly plagiarize it from people like Yahtzee and Spoony. Lack of "original" ideas, eh?

 

[octafish]

You cannot believe how smug I felt when I recognised Turner D. Century. Was he resurrected after being killed in the "Bar with No Name" massacre? I think he ended up serving Zola from memory. Some comic book characters really should stay dead.

 

[Blind Sight]

I must agree with Bob, awesome video.

The devil was the first whig, and he's been winning for 500 years

Yes, free us from "Serfdom" by bringing back actual Serfdom, nobility, rigidly defined class structres, church and state linked together, supression of any idea that might come up to challenge the status quo regardless of its legitimacy and all that. Oh the Irony.

Besides, your ideology came about in the early 1800s cenutry and had its massive failures. Mass famines in India, widespread poverty and horrible instability. The US had numerous finacial crashes due to lack of regulation over the course of the 19th century. The Great Depression was just the worst because of the rise of the cash economy (A larger precentage of people were using money more frequently, farmers before the Industrial Revolution usually had little money but could generally feed themselves and often could barter for things they could not make at home, once cities emerge people need to buy food and once industrial manufacturing begins stores no longer accept jars of jam as payment). Now, Banks and Finance have been deregulatd and the result, recession. Canada and the rest of the world's banks did not try to pull such scams because they were better monitored and kept on a shorter leash.

Zor

You do realize that one of the primary factors for the 2007 financial crash was the housing bubble burst? That was directly the result of government intervention (mostly thanks to Clinton's housing plans in the 90s) which created artificial demand. Government intervention into the economy, I will remind you, is traditionally a belief held by the centre or left. Also, the Great Depression was actually accelerated by government programs that attempted to halt it. Go look at unemployment rates in the 30s and you'll notice massive spikes whenever FDR created more New Deal social programs. In contrast, the depression that occurred in the 20s resulted in no excess government spending, in fact, the American government actually decreased spending, and the economy recovered within a year. I'm not even a conservative, I'm just pointing out how completely biased and selective your use of history is.

I wasn't going to comment, but when I read this I had to. You are seriously misinformed. In the late 90's, Republicans repealed the Glass-Steagall act, which deregulated the financial industry. That is what caused the recession, not government intervention.

The repeal of provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act effectively removed the separation that previously existed between investment banking which issued securities and commercial banks which accepted deposits. The deregulation also removed conflict of interest prohibitions between investment bankers serving as officers of commercial banks. This repeal directly contributed to the severity of the Financial crisis of 2007-2011 by allowing Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors' money that was held in commercial banks owned or created by the investment firms.

Those unemployment spikes under FDR happened when government cut back on spending, the opposite of what you're claiming. I don't know where you get your information from, but you should stop getting it from that source.

My sources are Joseph Salerno, an expert in monetary theory and banking, and Dr. Thomas Woods, historian and Austrian economist. Woods is widely accepted as an expert in both fields, has had several books make the New York Times bestseller list, and actively welcomes debate with his points (if you're that interested you can check out his youtube channel TomWoodsTV or his forum on the Von Muses Institute website). Most of these are examples from his book Rollback, where he deals with historical myths such as the decrease in spending= unemployment spike you mentioned. However, my housing points mainly come from Salerno, as Woods argues that the bigger problem in the American economy is the Federal Reserve.


Boosting aggregate demand within the housing sector created opportunities for mal-investment. Keynesian policies were one of the main driving forces behind the recession. There's a reason that Austrian economists in the late 90s and early 2000s were predicting a financial crash before anyone else.

If I may ask, what are your sources?

EDIT: If you have JSTOR, I'll gladly link you to the article written by Salerno I got my points from, turns out I still have it in my save file.

why not? god forbid people would actually have to work for the office not have it work for them. now i have no clue how to answer your last question but let me give it a go. get rid of politicians i dont know about you but id rather not have people there who want to be there id rather have the guy who gets the job done and leaves.

Well my whole reason for asking that question is that it's all well and good to talk about idealized forms of responsible government, it is another thing entirely to have an actual solution to the problem. It's a common fallacy I find, people want to argue for new ways of governing but can't find a way to create the necessary infrastructure for it to exist.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

I'd like to see Black & White 3, Age of Empires 4 (a good one), Commandos 4, Starwars Battlefront III, and KOTOR 3, along with Grim Fandango 2 (a different story perhaps) and that kind of games..

 

[The Great JT]

It's because of pinheads like Glenn Beck that I have a strict rule of, "there are two things you should never talk about with anyone ever; politics and religion."

However, yes, Beck is king of the morons, his supporters are morons who don't know that Beck is a moron, if he were to start a political party it'd be known as the Moron Party, and Glenn Beck probably needs to be banished from this country if only to improve the nation as a whole. Also, moron. I like saying that word.

Now, revising the Constitution some 235 years after it was originally written to be more clearly defined for a society that has evolved and changed? Oh boy, that'd be an endeavor for the ages. Definately a worthwhile endeavor, certainly, but how exactly would you mediate a revision of the Constitution? I mean, I'm under the impression (read, "delusion") that two people can't agree on pizza toppings, much less political matters, so how exactly would you modify something like the guidelines of a nation? Put it to a national poll? I don't think that'd work because people can sabotage the voting, they can intimidate their fellow man into voting for the other side, you get the whole idea. And I wouldn't trust today's elected officials due to the fact that they're untrustworthy and only in it for their own interests. These people have a hard job that I'm sure they hate as much as any burger-flipper or janitor, but name me a janitor that can give himself a raise whenever he feels like. The only politicians I personally feel I can trust died long ago, and since necromancy doesn't seem to exist (because that would be too awesome and too much responsibility for this pain-in-the-ass planet) I doubt that the founding fathers are going to jump out of their graves any time soon and set the record straight. To put it bluntly, I don't trust my fellow man to make a choice this big or this important and he makes the right choice.

 

[LRRBrad]

Bob - I don't know if that was preaching to the choir or if you're getting hatemail right now. I say that was awesome.

 

[Cat of Doom]

Every time I buy the next EA sports FIFa football Game, there are notable game differences which improve play and I cant play the old one after. (with the exemption of FIFA 7&8

 

[plainlake]

7 political parties for 17 million citizen? We currently got 7 parlimentary parties in a country of 4,5 mill, and 15 non parlimentary that often have a say in political debates and other news media. But I guess a functioning parlimentary system helps alot in making people vote for the smaller parties that correlate most with their own views. Personally I like that.