Nostalgia

I was recently reading an article lauding the benefits of nostalgia. According to a recent study finds that nostalgia can "counteract loneliness, boredom, and anxiety...it makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders." People even use nostalgia, or recounting a past experience on cold days in order to feel warmer. This is especially interesting since it has often been thought to be a mental disorder related to depression. On a broader scale we're often warned of the danger of "Golden Age" thinking and that a focus on the past will prevent progression not just in our own lives but also in the development of science, technology--just general...