[titzer]

Another way of putting this is that the present is full of doubts and fears, while the past is done, settled; it has no risks.

The fundamental problem is that the way we live in modern society is full of uncertainty that stems from unbridled change. It's driving us all mad because can't stop it, and we don't know what is the next casualty.

Nostalgia is also particularly strong for things we know we've lost and can never get back. Modern life is all about erasing--overwriting, really--both past and present, with new, shiny, utterly cheap coats of paint. Or knocking down and paving over.

[myth_drannon]

And if there is no change they call it stagnation and people will find it unbearable as well.

[cubefox]

They likely don't find it unbearable if it's normal. Stagnation was the largest part of human history. Only since the Renaissance has progress accelerated substantially. Before then, the life of the children was about the same as the life of the parents and grandparents. Life was governed by tradition. Everyone had their predictable role to play. Being unhappy about "stagnation" wasn't an option, as anything else would have been outlandish science fiction, which didn't exist.

[zht]

wait what?

it doesn't feel like it is really stagnation if armies are rampaging through your lands and you have new rulers/warlords/famine/pandemics all the time

[titzer]

Universal human condition, I guess. If we're going to persist in being miserable, might as well keep to ourselves and not screw it up for the other forms of life on this planet.