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| Easter in Sweden and Elsewhere | A Typical Work Day | ||
| Tuesday, 10th April, 2007 at 22:08 pm | |||
Being ‘Old-Fashioned’ | |||
All my life I have preferred the way things were done in the past to the way they are done now.
It seems to me that more care, pride, quality, time and love went into how things were done in the past. Here are some examples of what I mean:
| Then | Now |
|---|---|
| Cooking from scratch with real ingredients. | Heating a microwave meal or getting a takeaway. |
| Sitting down at the dinner table and eating together. | Eating in front of the TV or on the go due to lack of time. |
| Clothes were made of material from nature, made by a seamstress, a relative or a local tailor. | Cheap synthetic material made in gigantic sweatshops, according to assembly line principles. |
| People dressed to keep warm, cover up and ideally look attractive too. Clothes lasted for many seasons. | People dress to look sexy, cool and show status. Clothes are ‘ideally’ for one season only. |
| A basic hand-made chair, table, ladder, basket or chest from the 19th century is probably still intact today. | An equivalent from Ikea, Cargo Homeshop etc won’t last a decade. |
| Politeness and being a gentleman (or being ladylike) were ideals. | Most people just want to be ‘cool’ and successful. Politeness is very basic and only happens with people you know. |
| Men were masculine and took pride in their achievements as breadwinner and head of the household. Likewise women were feminine and took pride in their skills in household management, child-rearing and crafts. | Men try to suppress their masculinity as much in it is frowned upon. Women try to be tougher and less feminine most of the time. |
| Possessions were treasured, looked after and maintained for generations. | Most things lasts a couple of years before it breaks, becomes outdated or redundant. |
In every single example I prefer the old fashioned way. What about you?
After all, since society is the way that it is today, it must mean that most people think it’s better this way, right? So why am I different? Am I some freak of nature that strives backwards in evolution, not forward? Sometimes it feels that way.
Fred Astaire’s I’m Old Fashioned
I am not saying that I would necessarily want to live at the turn of last century, in the thirties or in the fifties… I am aware there were plenty of illnesses then, and that poor people had it very badly. But there are so many things from back then that seem so much better to me.
Can you relate to that at all, or do you feel the same way?
Why Old Fashioned?
I have been thinking about what could make somebody feel dissatisfied and unimpressed with modern society in all it’s high-tech, politically correct, postmodernist, metrosexual glory…
Is it because I was the oldest child? Apparently they tend to be more traditional.
Or is it because I spent so much time with my grandparents, born in 1912 and 1919?
Perhaps I read too many books from times past? Or is it simply something genetical?
My ideal would be today’s technically advanced society with a real drive towards environmental sustainability. Less focus on material possessions, more focus on traditional values. More on my vision for Utopia in a later post!
Technorati Tags: womanhood,
old-fashioned,conservative”,
traditional,
antifeminism
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Hi! Sad to say, but your site seems broken on Firefox 2.0.0.2 on Windows XP (at least for me). Somehow it thinks that my browser is wider than it really is, and doesn’t scale to the browser width. It also seems to banish my vertical scrollbar into oblivion (along with the end of the tabs) so it actually seems to mess the width of the window.
Moving off your site (usually) seems to put things back to normal. Returning to it messes it up again. Using the Ctrl-minus key to shrink the font size seems to help too.
Not sure when it started going wrong because I’ve been away a while. Email me if you want more info or me to do any diagnostic testing.
Jag delar precis din syn. Och jag tror att det inte handlar om att sträva tillbaka, utan snarare sträva till nästa steg i utvecklingen. Pendeln slår alltid tillbaka. Men den färgas av varje tidsålder. Industrialiseringen VAR ett framsteg för människor. Men vår vana trogen äter vi för mycket innan vi inser att vi redan är mätta. Och bestämmer oss för att balansera vår kost igen.
TRANSLATION BY CORDELIA: I completely share your view. And I do not think it is about going backwards but about striving towards the next step in evolution. The pendulum always swings back. But it is coloured by the era that it is in. Industrialisation was a great step forward for man. But true to our habit we eat too much before we realise that we are already full… Then we decide to eat in moderation again!
It was great to get a comment in Swedish! I probably would have left it in Swedish but I thought the comment was really good so I wanted to translate it so that everybody could read!
Hi Cordelia,
There is nothing wrong with your Traditionl values. In fact they are spot on. I often find my self thinking on how “it used to be” as well. The PC culture has made us generic in todays societys. I salute your independance and it warms my heart to hear of a native European thinking as you do…you cannot be alone.
I say this because your whole blog strikes a cords in me and as I am an American who’s country is being forced to adopt the very European ways your seem to reject as natural, I see hope.
We over here are always talking of how it was just 10 or 20 years ago as our lives are consumed with work, Political corectness, taxes,political and Environmental issues. Mothers can no longer stay home and raise the kids and mind the house hold, nor are they to want to do that. Men are castrated while women are taught not to want or need us. Confidence is now arrogance, Strength is now violence potential, Striving for more is greed. Excellence and just about everything else we do is construed as racist.
Its only 50 percent like that here though. There are still places and a good number (150 million) of people who think as you do and cherish everything good it can bring and enrich our lives.
I believe thought such as your will be the thing that will be needed to keep our people from fading away. Family life is cumbersome today and hard to hold together. Marriages fail because people are selfish and are only living for the moment and not thinking of future generations.
Your right, its okay to be different as sexes…because we are. I would want my wife to be a girl not more man then me. I like girly girls. This has nothing to do with equal rights. The above poster is right, the pendulum will swing back, hopefully sooner then later. I have pangs about America’s changes and I can only imagine Europe which is in a far more advanced stage of this PC state sponsored medeocrity then we are.
Traditional values will make us happier and less narcissistic. You could make some lucky guy a very happy camper in deed. Your a dream, warts and all.;)
If I am preaching abit here remember I am an American and fellow Viking! Cut me some slack….or not.
Hi Will - I loved your comment! Thanks for stopping by and do come back. I think we are coming from the same perspective.
It’s such a relief to know that there are other people who think like me. Among my friends, with family and at work my thoughts on these matters are pretty much unacceptable.
There are many reasons why I decided to set up a personal blog, but venting my feelings about modern society was one of them. Thanks also for the kind words of encouragement regarding dating. I think I will blog some about that topic soon. Keeping a blog is great for moral support!
You’re no freak! If you are then that makes me one too. I dont think I’ve ever met anyone who quite thinks like me. I’ve only read a fraction of what you have to say and already I have more in common with you than 98% of the population. I’m like you, a new age old fahioned person with old fashion morals and I’m a good person who thinks about others before myself. I’m sat in a world of people who I dont really like. No one trys to be nice these days and everyone is just interested in themselves. But what can be done? I think we’re such a small proportion of people now that I’m really not sure what can be done.
I’m not sure if I’ll even hear from you but I would love to chat to you. It would make a most welcome change
Here’s to a hopefully brighter future!
David
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