Podbit · The Bulwark Podcast
Jane Coaston's Costal Nostalgia Theory: people always think the era when they were young and attractive was civilization's peak. Vanilla Ice thinks it's the early '90s. Joe Rogan misses old LA. Commenters in their 70s think 1977 was paradise — forgetting stagflation and the Son of Sam.
Where this was said
At 54:07 · chapter starts 53:50
Jane Coaston introduces her theory with characteristic precision: the question to ask anyone claiming the past was better is simply 'were you young and/or hot at the time?' [1] — Jane Coaston "Jane Coaston's Costal Nostalgia Theory: people always think the era when they were young and attractive was civilization's peak. Vanilla Ic…" 54:07 The Atlantic's interview with Vanilla Ice — who believes the early 1990s represent the zenith of human civilization, an era when he was dating Madonna and appearing in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies — provides the purest case study. Coaston expands the theory empirically: comment sections at National Review, the Free Press, and left-leaning publications alike are dominated by early-70-somethings who believe 1977 was paradise, apparently forgetting the Son of Sam, the NYC blackouts, and stagflation. She notes that Saturday Night Fever is the template — a film everyone associates with a great time that is actually an extremely depressing movie. Tim Miller confesses he has Peter Pan syndrome as the exception that proves the rule, which he frames as the active choice to find good things happening now rather than mourning the past. He closes by observing that Joe Rogan, listened to for the first time in a while, has become a grumpy old rich man with no joy left — just complaints about how LA isn't what it used to be.
Jane's Costal Nostalgia Theory holds that people believe their personal golden era is simply when they were young and attractive — Vanilla Ice believes the early 1990s were the peak of civilization.
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