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The purely psychological explanation is quite simple.
The brain is able to construct mental forms and images both related to the present, as well as to the past, and to the future. That is, the intellectual function of the brain “works for three times”.
At the same time, emotions are always experienced only here and now. That is, the emotional function of the brain works only for the present.�
Therefore, any of your “memories “(and in fact – just the current reconstruction of the brain images of the past) is accompanied by your current emotions in relation to these images. If your emotional attitude to the past is negative, then so will your “memories”. If it is positive, then the brain will construct “good”memories.
Memories of their own youth in most people are associated with positive emotions. Some of them also have memories of their childhood. Therefore, the “memories” constructed by the brain also get a positive color.
The classic joke on this topic is: “Grandfather, was it better before the war? “Better! “Why not?” “And then I have X.”.. standing!”)
I have asked myself this question several times when my parents talked about the Union and their youth, but they still said that it was better before; and even now there is almost everything you want in the world, but still “it was better before” and only recently did I understand why. It's really simple: it used to be better, because we were younger before.
Experience is the main reason for this ” phenomenon.” Today, this expression is relevant for the majority of people in our country, and not only in our country, for the simple reason that their standard of living and living conditions tend to go downhill from year to year. Technological progress makes up for this decline, but only partially.
The elite layer of society, on the contrary, is fragrant, and none of these people will tell you that it was better before. Moreover, through the media, they are constantly trying to plant in people's minds the idea that it was worse before.
Because “earlier” has already been fired. It doesn't scare you anymore, you control it. And “today” is made up of suspense-a cocktail of hope and fear.
You do a thought experiment. Do you know that toy town in a glass ball, and there the snow falls? So mentally cut out any scene from “today” and solder it into a glass ball with snow. From “today” you will get “earlier”. And you will immediately see how anxiety, uncertainty of the outcome, the threatening tread of everyday life, doubts and demands to decide will transform into a cozy calm, detachment, wise knowledge of all causes and consequences, security and complacency 🙂
And another example is a doll. What is it? Bear scares and attracts at the same time. Plush adapts to the psyche of this monster. Your “before” is a monster-life, trapped in a plush toy-memory.
Let's look at the development of a person's attitude to history (since you are talking specifically about historical time, and not about individually experienced time).
It is clear that at the very beginning, a person did not care about any changes: “Day and night – a day away.” Many people still live like this.
Gradually, it became clear that some changes are taking place (seasons, changing rulers, etc.), but these changes are not fundamental. Everything goes back to normal. This is a pre-Christian (even ancient Greek, even Jewish, even Buddhist) understanding. Many people still live like this.
Plato, followed by Christianity, created a “standard”, from the height of which everything “further” is a “corrupted” version of the ideal, and the further it goes, the worse it gets. That's exactly what you're talking about. Many people still live like this.
Descartes, Newton, and then Kant “shifted” the responsibility for the development of humanity to humanity itself. There is an opportunity for progress. Since then, many have been doing this.
Each of us (people) can only decide which group to join.
In general, the idea of the” golden age”, which was once a long time ago and after which everything only continuously and hopelessly deteriorated and worsened-this is one of the most basic mythological plots in the history of mankind. It is amazing how closely these ideas are repeated in the myths of all epochs and civilizations. At the same time, people tend to idealize not only the distant or non-historical past, but even the relatively recent one.
If we try to rationalize this mythological construction (which in principle does not work very well with myths that are pre-or extra-rational constructs), then Eliade's ideas about sacred and profane time seem to me the most interesting. That is, in fact, that there are two types of time – one of which is linear time and linear history, in which everything is destroyed and dies, and the other is sacred time, in which things and people are not subject to destruction, like gods and heroes. This sacred time, if we consider it within the framework of linear time, is automatically pushed back somewhere far into the past. In this past, there is no aging and dying, no degradation and decay, because sacred time is essentially cyclical, it flows, but, excuse the pun, it does not leak.
At the same time, events of a distant profane time are also sacralized, for the reason that relative to the painfully tangible and obvious disintegration, aging and degradation (personal or external) that have occurred since those distant events, these past events themselves are perceived as a period of time without aging/degradation. E. g. when I was a student, I grew old just as I do now, day after day, but if I uncritically recall my student days, I see myself in them eternally young, not aging or degrading relative to my youthful state. Because, indeed, at any point in my student life I was much younger, healthier, etc., than I am now. And so in the memory of sacralizuetsya any past.
As far as this concept is justified, I do not presume to judge, but it sounds beautiful. I advise Eliade to read it – it is about the sacred and profane so well calls, you will hear:)