Does time heal all wounds?
To be timeless…
There’s a clever trick that society plays on us.
It’s called, “Why can’t you move on? I have!”
The truth is that people don’t move on from their wrongs. They simply plow them under and move forward. But whatever you plow under will eventually spring up.
In this way, people’s personalities become ugly, hardened, and embittered.
This is why they have no problem asking you, rhetorically, why you can’t move on.
That’s why they can stomach playing such a shitty trick on a person they’ve wronged.
There’s a massive uptick in “nostalgia posting” on the timeline.
As everything goes to utter hell and back, the worst demons among us unleashed, there is a growing contingent of people who long for when times were better.
This phenomena is captured by this meme:
These guys, at the time, had it so bad. Life was rough!
But in hindsight, there’s an innocence they had that has since been spoiled.
This is not unlike bad parenting’s effects on a person.
Once upon a time, you were an untroubled, un-cudgeled, un-browbeaten individual who had a plucky enthusiasm and a zest for life. You have some go-off energy.
This was ground out of you by unhappy, mean parents.
Little by little, the light went out. The twinkle was snuffed out.
And you’re not allowed to remember.
The world is set up to grind you down. The world will remove from you your ability to empathize with previous mood and hormonal states where you were much brighter, more innocent, and alive.
And if you spend any amount of time trying to remember or recapture these previous states, you will be treated as a kook.
Abusive parents will edge away from you like you’ve done something wrong.
An ax-murderer, establishmentarian society will call you sentimental, “conservative”, feckless, weak, cowardly, feminine, etc.
All manner of abuse must be heaped on you to keep you from questioning why things went so wrong – or how they could be improved.
Instead you’re supposed live in a highly reactive state of yowling at the latest outrage.
Forever on a hamster wheel of escalation.
Society heaps its greatest accolades on those who best help us forget.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.