Summary
After college, my wife (who was then my girlfriend) and I got an apartment in the Seattle suburbs. We were 23, gainfully employed, living in our version of the Taj Mahal. This was before kids, so we slept in until 10am on the weekends.
When studying history, you know how the story ends, which makes it impossible to imagine what people were thinking or feeling in the past. We remember how we think we should have felt, given what we know today.
It’s easy to discount – even ignore – how they felt at the time. The problem with looking back with hindsight is that nothing is uncertain. Uncertainty dictates nearly everything in the current moment, but looking back we pretend it never existed.
In a similar way, Americans are still nostalgic about life in the 1950s. There was also the ever-present risk of nuclear annihilation. What felt like dangers then now look like adventures.
The economy recovered, the wars ended, and there wasn’t another major terrorist attack. It’s easy to forget all of those because we know the economy recovered and the wars were over. Everything looks certain in hindsight, but at the time uncertainty ruled the day.
