This is the opening line to Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas”. I have loved that film, and have listened to Danny Elfman’s brilliant soundtrack during the months leading up to Christmas ever since the movie came out. Recently, I realised that I often think of this particular line, and wondered why.

Nostalgia

I think it awakens a sense of nostalgia for a time that never really existed. Just as Patrick Stewart’s voice says in the second half of the sentence: “in a place that perhaps you’ve seen in your dreams.” My friends and I have noticed that collective nostalgia has become more present in our society. Nostalgia for a time when young people rightfully expected that they would do better in life than their parents. A time when everything seemed simpler. When what was said on the news was assumed to be true, when working hard was going to get you places, and roles were clearly defined. When you didn’t have to make hard choices, because they were made for you. One of the most noticeable expressions of this nostalgia is Trump’s “Make America Great Again”. But what is nostalgia, really? According to the dictionary, it is:

“A wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.”

^{– Merriam-Webster dictionary}

Studies have shown that our brains are generally wired to remember the very negative or positive experiences, while everything in between seems to fade more easily. And indeed, nostalgia exaggerates the positive in our memories, erasing any negative context attached to them. That is perhaps why MAGA’s message is so easy to adhere to: it aims to remind us of a time when everything was supposedly better. As it is easy to glorify what you are removed from, either geographically or chronologically, the MAGA crowd believes there was a time when America truly was great.

Great again?

But how great was America, really? There used to be an American Dream, to be sure. And “the new world” (“new” for those who wrote our history) was indeed a land of opportunities and liberty for many who were fleeing persecution and hunger. There has also always been an American sense of optimism, and faith that anything is possible, that we Europeans long for. Where I grew up, we are raised to be conscious of our rich cultural heritage and our long history, but we are also weighed down by it. In the United States, this is not the case. Nothing seems to be forever, and there is a “can-do attitude” that we are simply not taught in Europe. 

But no place is just one thing. And now, our perception of the American Dream is slowly shifting towards something not quite as perfect and squeaky clean as it used to be. We are waking up to the reality that, although America has been great for scores of people over the centuries, it certainly hasn’t been so for everyone. For many, the notion that we should go back to a time when America was “great” is upsetting, if not insulting. Whether for Indigenous peoples of the United States, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Japanese Americans, independent-minded women, people of alternative sexualities, anyone suspected of being a communist, and the list goes on. For all of these groups, returning to the days MAGA refers to is not an attractive alternative to today’s state of affairs. This is perhaps also a good time to mention the use of the name “America” in a way that completely disregards 34 American countries outside the United States. 

The nostalgia for a time when “America was great” reminds me of complaints I hear about our shrinking scope of freedoms in the West, especially for upper-to-middle class White men. Seen from a certain perspective, I understand that giving up privileges can be hard, which I addressed in a previous blog article. But I don’t see how anyone should feel they are justified in complaining about this transformation. By which logic should the past ways be the norm, as opposed to the direction we are moving towards now?

Ask yourself

We should be asking ourselves how it is OK that we profit from the exploitation of others. For instance, how can we pay only a couple of euros for a T-shirt, without thinking about who made it? Who produced the fabric, coloured it, designed the shirt, sewed it – or operated the machines that sewed it – packaged, transported, sold it, in such a way that it should cost us only two euros? At whose expense are we wealthy, clothed, educated – happy? Who are the people who are stitching the inspirational messages on our shirts at 1,5€ per hour, reminding us how unique and fabulous we are? Are they not unique and fabulous, too?

My question to all of us is: “Why should anybody else’s time be of less value than our own?” Time is the one thing that cannot be stopped, reversed, or fixed. So who are we to decide that this precious commodity should be worth so little if you are born elsewhere? Like the people in China, India, or Thailand, making our clothes, toys, and machines, in Brazil, Colombia, or Vietnam, growing our coffee beans, in Ghana, the Ivory Coast, or Indonesia, harvesting our cocoa beans, to name but these. 

James Brown used to sing: 

“This is a man’s, man’s, man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl”

^{– “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World” written by Betty Jean Newsome / James Brown}

If we were honest with ourselves, we would be singing: “This is a White world, but it wouldn’t be nothing without all the other people working for us”.

As we know, but choose not to see, colonialism is not dead. It has just changed shapes. Whether we like it or not, our consumerist behaviour is greatly contributing to maintaining inequalities in this competitive market economy. In Europe, artists I know end up having their creations printed or sewn in China so that they will find buyers for them. European-made products are more expensive because we have strict labour laws and trade unions protecting workers’ rights, which makes them less competitive.

And when I hear people complaining about immigrants coming over to “our countries”, I think of the way our companies are treating these immigrants in their home countries. As long as we underpay the labour force working for us from across the world, they have every reason to want to move here, where they might have a chance at a fairer salary. Although I dream of a world where migration is a matter of choice, not a necessity for survival, we are still very far removed from it.

Wake up! 

“Make America Great Again” is a wish to return to an age of innocence and blindness. A wish to return to childhood. Perhaps what the United States and part of the world are going through now is a coming of age. An awakening to what was already here, that so many managed to avoid seeing by keeping their eyes shut tight.

In some ways, it is like the film “The Zone of Interest”, which shows careless everyday life in the Hoess family home, right next to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Hoess was the camp commandant. Like Hoess and his family, most Nazis and their allies chose not to see what they didn’t want to see. Just as most of us living in Western countries have been keeping our eyes shut in the face of injustice that we are actively, albeit indirectly, involved in. In this respect, the use of the word “woke” is exactly on point.

“Woke, the African-American English synonym for the General American English word awake, has (…) been used to refer to awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans, often in the construction stay woke. Beginning in the 2010s, it came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBTQ rights.” 

^{– Wikipedia}

Some of us have been waking up to what we have, intentionally or unintentionally, ignored. The dust we have swept under the rug has been piling up for centuries. Our entire societal model, and what we call “progress”, is built on a profound imbalance, which is brilliantly addressed in the documentary film “Tomorrow“.

It is a disparity on three levels: within our Western societies, between countries at a global human level, and between humans and the natural world on a planetary scale. We have been acting like the residents of Springfield in the episode of “The Simpsons” entitled “Trash of the Titans”. In it, Homer’s ineptitude as sanitation commissioner leads to unmanageable amounts of trash being piled up under his hometown, and all of Springfield eventually has to move, leaving behind a gigantic junkyard.

Taking sides

Now, we are at a point where we are divided into two groups. One, still trying to hold on to our old ways, tied together with patriarchy, colonialism, the exploitation of every natural and human resource. Not unlike the residents of Springfield, they are already preparing themselves for a collective move to another planet, namely Mars, once they are done using this planet’s resources. The other group is ready to deal with all the trash humans have been leaving in their path. Some are already picking up their brooms and dustpans, while others are still considering what to do about this new awareness. In a way, we are faced with the same dilemma as Neo in “The Matrix”.  

“You take the blue pill… the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill… you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

– Morpheus in “The Matrix“

In other words, do you choose to pretend you don’t know what’s going on, and go back to what you knew, even if it is a mirage? Or do you opt to face the harsh reality, and fight for freedom and truth? It is not an easy choice to make. Especially for today’s youth, who have only ever heard about how great things used to be. They are being hit with the consequences of centuries of industrialisation, exploitation, and inequalities. The impact of past wrongs is so overwhelming that escapism is a natural reaction to all that surrounds us. As we have seen, voting for a leader who promises to rid them of all these ugly truths is tempting, too – but it is extremely naive. All we hear in populist discourse, in reaction to this awakening that has begun, is violent discourse. The spread of incendiary language may lead to actual conflicts and suffering, but in the long run, I don’t see it stopping this course of history. It might slow it down, but it will not stop it. 

Keep going

In 2025, I want to believe in the power of those who see the wrongs that were already here but had been ignored. I want to believe that, despite the force with which all our countries are shifting to the right, we will manage to avoid another world war or the complete destruction of our environment. I hope that ever more people will open their eyes, and turn to each other for support. I hope that the communities of people who see the world with more nuance, solidarity, and empathy, will grow to outnumber the ones desperately trying to hold on to the old worldview.

In the grand scheme of things, we are experiencing just another step in our evolution. This is merely a setback in our advance. My wish is that we won’t let it discourage us. Onwards we must go!

(Title quote taken from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”,
written by Tim Burton, Michael McDowell, Caroline Thompson)