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Bridges

Good Old Days or Deceptive Haze: How Does Nostalgia Shape Us and Our Society?

March 9, 2025 

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Discussion Questions

These questions are just to start and aid discussion. Please skip around in the list, indulge diversions, and let your discussion develop naturally.

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  1. What does the word "nostalgia" bring to your mind? Do your own thoughts on the concept differ from the formal Oxford definition: "a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations."?

  2. ​Are you nostalgic? What triggers your nostalgia? Do you do anything to indulge your nostalgia? (looking at old pictures, movies, books, talking to friends with similar memories, collecting things, etc). 

  3. What is the difference between nostalgia-influenced memory and objective memory?​

  4. Some people express nostalgia only within the frame of their own experiences and memories; Others engage nostalgia for an era they never experienced ("historical nostalgia" in the video below). How is interest in an era before-your-time different than memory-driven nostalgia? How is it the same? Can nostalgia fuel experiences now that you couldn't access in the past (due to financial constraints or other barriers)? How much is nostalgia just a marketing ploy similar to fashion trends and other consumer manipulations? 

  5. On balance, is nostalgia more harmful or helpful to societal progress? We're all familiar with the destructive nostalgia used in the American MAGA movement to point to a (mostly delusional) "good old days" - are there counters to this that use nostalgia to build a better community or polity? 

  6. What age were you when you first felt nostalgic? If you haven't yet felt it, when, if ever, do you think you will? For older folks, did the video below's discussion of nostalgia in the youngest current adult generation (Z) surprise you? Is nostalgia in youth different than nostalgia in old age?

  7. What can we do in the present to personally or collectively create experiences and social structures worthy of (non-delusional) nostalgia in the future?​​

Background Discussion Material

Material listed here is intended  to enhance discussion. The inclusion of these materials is not an endorsement of their authors or the organizations publishing them. We encourage you to fact check any claims made in these materials. 

Your Brain is Lying to You About the “Good Old Days”.

Image 2023-11-22 at 7.44 AM.jpg

King's Bridge is a registered Canadian charity. Please direct questions about our community and programs to Rob at kbchurchcalgary@gmail.com . Financial questions, including donation information can be directed to Cindy at stealthwarrior3@gmail.com .

Most King's Bridge gatherings take place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, which is Treaty 7 territory. This is part of the traditional home of the Blackfoot Confederacy (which includes the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), the Îethka Nakoda Wîcastabi First Nations (which includes the Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Wesley First Nations), and the Tsuut’ina First Nations. Calgary is also part of the homeland of the Northwest Métis and Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.

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