{"id":2926,"date":"2011-07-10T23:00:35","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T07:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2011-07-10T23:01:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T07:01:18","slug":"oh-for-the-good-old-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2926\/oh-for-the-good-old-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, For the Good Old Days…"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jill Chapin<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

July 10, 2011<\/p>\n

Woody Allen\u2019s Midnight in Paris<\/em>, recognizes our warm and fuzzy – but not so accurate –\u00a0 recollections of bygone yesterdays.\u00a0 It seems to be part of the human condition to conveniently edit out the unpleasant, the mundane, or the hurtful that we\u2019ve experienced in our pasts.\u00a0 Our photo-shopped, gauzy, selective memories keep our utopian retrospective alive.<\/p>\n

What better way to escape today\u2019s realities than by slipping back to a supposedly better time.\u00a0 Which is what Woody Allen\u2019s alter ego did when he got a magical opportunity to do just that.\u00a0 But to his great chagrin, he discovered that those people in his romanticized times also longed for the good old days.<\/p>\n

So maybe our political landscape isn\u2019t now more deplorable and more devoid of all common sense and civility as we believe it to be.\u00a0 But if you listened to Carson, or currently tune in to Leno, Maher or Stewart, you would think that we have devolved to an unprecedented state of lies, ineptitude and general unstatesman-like behavior.<\/p>\n

All of the above comedians undoubtedly learned their craft of giving verbal thrashings to and roasting those in today\u2019s news from the master of political satire, Will Rogers.\u00a0 To read his words of nearly a century ago, they send the same message of frustration and futility as do his protegees\u2019 musings, yet all have mastered the art of delivering seriously distasteful realities with more than a dollop of wit and good humor to lessen the nasty taste of it all.<\/p>\n

Consider the following quotes from Will Rogers and see for yourself that these current 21st century sentiments were actually spoken to a jaded public in the early 20th century:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Everything is changing.\u00a0 People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.<\/em><\/p>\n

– I don\u2019t make jokes.\u00a0 I just watch the government and report the facts.<\/em><\/p>\n

– There\u2019s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.<\/em><\/p>\n

– I am not a member of any organized political party.\u00a0 I am a Democrat.<\/em><\/p>\n

– An economist\u2019s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else\u2019s.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Be thankful we\u2019re not getting all the government we\u2019re paying for.<\/em><\/p>\n

– A fool and his money are soon elected.<\/em><\/p>\n

– About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.<\/em><\/p>\n

– Our constitution protects aliens, drunks, and U.S. Senators.<\/em><\/p>\n

– I bet after seeing us, George Washington would sue us for calling him \u201cfather.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

– If I studied all my life, I couldn\u2019t think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of Congress.<\/em><\/p>\n

– We don\u2019t seem to be able to check crime, so why not legalize it and then tax it out of business?<\/em><\/p>\n

– All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that\u2019s an alibi for my ignorance.<\/em><\/p>\n

Feel better?\u00a0 Those from the good old days were not as smitten with their place in history as we would like to believe they were.\u00a0\u00a0 If you\u2019re an optimist, you probably feel we\u2019re not much worse off than before. But if you\u2019re more of a pessimist, then it\u2019s apparent we haven\u2019t evolved much from our past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What better way to escape today\u2019s realities than by slipping back to a supposedly better time. Which is what Woody Allen\u2019s alter ego did when he got a magical opportunity to do just that. 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