Living in the Past

I've been rediscovering a lot of music I liked in my youth when I hear a song one of of the Sirius stations that plays older music. Songs by Stone Temple Pilots, the Cure, Otis Redding have come back into rotation for me after hearing them on Sirius. An article about the group the Violent Femmes came up on my news feed recently and that prompted me to download some of their music. They weren't great singers or even good singers, but I still enjoyed their music back in the 1980s and I still enjoy it now too. It's one thing to look back nostalgically on your life and appreciate the music and memories from that time, but it's another thing to think that what worked back in the 1970s, 80s, etc. will work now. 

I say this because I feel like the recent wars and political situations that are going on now require foreign policy solutions that differ from what we (the US) did in the past, yet a lot of politicians (many who should have retired years ago) keep trying to solve new problems with old solutions. I'm tired of the excuse that "we've always done things this way" as a reason for why we're making foreign policy decisions that may have worked in the 1970s or 80s, but don't work today. It's time for new policies and procedures. Looking back on what was done during the Reagan era or the Bush years (or even back to Nixon, Kennedy, etc.) to try and solve problems in 2023 is ridiculous. The world has changed and modern problems require modern solutions. We can't resolve every conflict around the world and throwing money at these problems isn't helping either when we have problems right here at home that need to be dealt with. Continuing to use the same rhetoric that worked thirty, forty, or fifty years ago isn't helpful. Stop living in the past, folks!