What's your Golden Age?
I thought this movie made some very interesting points about nostalgia, and how every era had an earlier era they considered the "golden age".
When I was a teenager I was fascinated by the middle ages, and played out elaborate scenarios in my head about how I would get by if I was suddenly transported back in time to Europe in the 11th century or so. I love the old dresses, the castles, and the stories. I really felt like the present was boring and I had been born in the wrong time. I'm sure some of it was just feeling like I didn't fit in, like any teenager, and thinking I'd rather do needlework and pottery (some of my hobbies) than go to school and feel like an outsider.
I am still very interested in this period and like to imagine living in it, but I think part of growing up has been realizing and appreciating how good the present really is. Like Gil pointed out, we have antibiotics now! I can vote, have a good job, car, and apartment, and do so much that I wouldn't have been able to do even 100 years ago, let alone 1000! I've also met someone like Inez, a complete realist who can't comprehend that need to escape from the present. We didn't get along, but trying to understand her opened my eyes a lot. People had just as many problems then, only theirs came with smallpox, oppression, and ignorance.
Are you a realist or a nostalgiac? What time period/place would you visit if you had the chance?