The ‘Things are Getting Worse’ Fallacy

People have always had some sense of downwards trajectory, from Biblical times to your parent's - you are not unique in cherishing the cluster of decades surrounding your birth. If you're on this website, you should ask your parents how they feel about the 60's or 70's. Broadly speaking, I believe this is how it works. 

Because from a young age, you are surrounded by people who are older than you (this is just statistics, if you're one year old, most people ever are older than you) talking about times past, to some degree. This is a function of the hedonic treadmill. The psychological feature that brings people back to a euthymic baseline. Most things are fine - or become fine in time. 

Nostalgia is like a smaller treadmill on top of the main one, running in the opposite direction. It makes scant progress, but nothing ever really changes. And when people have children, they add a new treadmill. Everyone's view of the past is coloured by the fact that things are always eventually fine - it makes the past seem pretty good. It's the now - stressful, vibrant, now - that is horrible and present and real. 

Reality is painful. It is also inherently valuable. Existence is not inherently valuable, it's just your consciousness slamming itself against something beautiful. When you've got chipped teeth and a popped eyeball, it's hard to appreciate it all but in retrospect. 

Reality will always hurt. Things are getting worse. 

However,

in ten years you'll look in the rearview and you'll see the sunset.