Most people believe that something is deeply wrong with the world and with us, and that things somehow need to be fixed and made right. Many philosophers and revolutionaries believe that mankind must gradually advance from backwardness and ignorance to a final Utopia. They pursue their vision of a golden future which constantly slips out of their grasp. In Bruce Olson’s book Bruchko, Olson’s friend Lucio believes fervently in socialism and is constantly promoting this plan for mankind at his university:
Lucio’s coalition won the election at the university. “Now you’ll see something, Olson. Now you’ll really see,” he said.
He soon found that the worst enemy of a political reformer is winning an election. Within a few months the coalition began to break apart. Few of the students were as committed to it as Lucio; there were squabbles and power struggles and constant threats to withdraw from it. Lucio finally was forced to admit failure. One night he threw himself on his bed, cursing.
“Olson, what’s the point of all this? No matter how good my ideas are, someone always ruins them.”
As Lucio discovered, people have a way of always ruining their own plans and ideas, squandering any progress made and falling back on pining for the “old days” again. Most people eventually become disillusioned with the idea of ever achieving a future state of true happiness and human freedom by human endeavor.
Yet many people have a vague feeling that such a time did once exist. I have often heard people say that “things aren’t as good as they used to be,” that the country has “lost what made it great,” that “men aren’t men these days.” Exactly what time in the past they are referring to, when everything was so much better, is usually unclear. Even when they are referring to a specific time, closer examination shows that they are viewing that period through rose tinted glasses. In fact, back in those former idyllic times, people were still nostalgic for the “good old days”.
What was that old time, when everything was better, when people were happy and contented? Is it just a nostalgic fantasy or a memory of childhood? Was there ever such a time?
Many times and cultures seem to share this feeling. The Jews in exile sang of the Promised Land. During the decadence of the Roman Empire, citizens pined for the old virtues, the “good old days” of the Republic. Rousseau looked back to idyllic times without strife, when men shared all things, before they were corrupted by civilization. Some modern sociologists look at our presumed former state as hunter-gatherers as the ideal society. But even the Motilones, one of these hunter-gatherer societies, uncorrupted by civilization, had this same longing. In the book Bruchko by Bruce Olson, Olson converses with the Motilone witch doctor about diseases.
“We call on God to cast the evil spirits out,” [said the witch doctor].
“And why doesn’t He always do it?” I asked.
Her face fell, and she turned aside. “We have deceived God,” she said in a low, sad voice…
“How did you deceive God?” I asked.
“A man came who claimed to be a prophet,” she said. “He said that he could take us over the horizon to a land where there was a better hunt. His name was Sacamaydodji. We left God and followed him.”
“When did all this happen?” I asked softly.
She said nothing for a moment, then swept her arm out. “Many, many years ago. We have only heard the story. But we know that he has deceived us. We are far away from God.”
Many cultures share this idea that we have somehow lost our first happy state and/or become separated from God. If this is so, the solution is not to strive for some unprecedented man-made utopia, but to seek to undo what we did wrong so long ago, to get back to God Who is “beyond the horizon,” as the Motilones put it.
In his book Manalive by G.K. Chesterton, Innocent Smith says to another revolutionary:
“But don’t you see that all these real leaps and destructions and escapes are only attempts to get back to Eden – to something we have had, to something we at least have heard of? Don’t you see that one only breaks the fence or shoots the moon in order to get HOME?”
Perhaps, then, nostalgia for the “good old days” is actually, but unconsciously, looking back to when men did not die, when love was pure and unashamed, and when God came to walk and talk with Adam in the cool of the day.
