Nostalgia | Why Do We Mourn The Past?

People are divided about how we should approach these intense experiences related to past events called nostalgia. Some people just love to immerse themselves in memories, good or bad, and take deep journeys into the realm of the former. Other people avoid clinging to memories because this only makes them sad. So, can we see nostalgia as an enjoyable indulgence in the past, or is it actually a form of suffering and thus harmful?

For this video, I've explored several philosophical ideas about human engagement in nostalgia. After King Nebuchadnezzar II successfully besieged Jerusalem in 597 BC, the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah were deported to Babylonia. In the book of the Psalms, we can find an expression of yearning by the Jewish people, and I quote: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we remembered Zion." This Jewish hymn is an example of the human ability to grieve intensely about the past.

Sometimes, these grievances are just temporary, and in other cases, we see people in an almost perpetual sadness grown from a deep longing for what's already gone. For the Jewish people in exile, this didn't mean that the City of Jerusalem was gone; the city is still here today. They mourned their former presence in Jerusalem. So, nostalgia is really about our personal relation to the environment.

For those in exile, many memories were created in the city of Jerusalem—things like youth, friendships, childbirth, good times with family members, etc. Therefore, the Jewish people had become attached to the city in their collective story. Jerusalem is their city, but their deportation by the enemy meant an involuntary abandonment of the place they were so attached to, together with all the individual as well as collective stories related to it. Jerusalem had become part of their identity. By leaving it behind, they got separated from themselves.

Strange as this may sound, nevertheless, the Jewish people started a new phase in their lives. When we enter a new phase in our lives, our brains tend to romanticize the phases before. We hear, see, or smell something that reminds us of those times in the past like a song, a photo, or perfume, and we feel these weird sensations in our stomach or suddenly find ourselves in a full-blown emotional samba.

The weird thing I've noticed about nostalgia is that we are nostalgic about times we were nostalgic about. Earlier times—when I was 20, I was nostalgic about the times I was 12; when I was 27, I was nostalgic about when I was 20; when I was 32, I was nostalgic about the times I was 27, and so forth. When you look at it, it doesn't make any sense to long for a period of time and a few years later long for the period of time in which you were longing for another period of time.

So, the Jewish people were in agony when they were deported, but it won't surprise me that some of them looked back on the time of deportation with nostalgic feelings afterward. War, for example, is considered a terrible thing. How come that people who have experienced the Second World War can be quite nostalgic about it? Sometimes a more contemporary example is quitting a job. When we leave a job we hate, we are full of joy, but after a year or so, we sometimes long back for the pointless conversations at the coffee machine and the stupid jokes from certain co-workers.

Our time working there has become nostalgic, and we tend to think, "Oh, now I realize how great that job actually was. I wouldn't mind working there again." But do we base this statement on facts or do we base it on emotions evoked by mere memories? The word nostalgia is composed of the Greek words nostos and algos. The word nostos refers to returning home; the word algos refers to sorrows and griefs. According to Google, nostalgia is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past. Therefore, the experience of nostalgia is based on memories.

The problem with memories is that they aren't the same as reality. They are very subjective constructions of events that are behind us—fantasies about the realm outside of the present moment that are so beautifully engraved in our minds.