Chasing History's "Golden Age"

Was it in the past or has it even arrived yet?

The baby shieldmaiden during her mom’s “Golden Age”

I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my life right now, which has me thinking about leaving one chapter behind and looking forward to what comes next. This year I changed my job situation, we had a death in the family, and my birthday is next week which always gives me reason to pause and take stock at my “personal annual new year.” Another turn around the sun complete, and it’s been a great ride.

The world also feels like it’s at a bit of a crossroads, historically, right now. Lots of challenges loom politically, economically, and climatically. The future seems uncertain. In my country it feels like we are divided socially in myriad and irreparable ways, and it causes me to think about when it wasn’t so. And then, as a historian, I remember that this type of thinking is a trap. Was it ever not so? Did we have a time when things were great and we were carefree? When was the so-called “Golden Age” that humans have longed for and chased throughout our history? I imagine it will depend on whom you ask.

For example, I asked my mom on her 80th birthday when that was for her, and she pointed to the photo of the three of us above. My parents were very young, in their early 20s, and I was their first born. We were all fresh, happy, and probably filled with hope for what the future would bring.

Likewise, in recent years in the U.S. there have been cries from some to “Make America Great Again.” Clearly, they think we used to be a better country than we are now, but to be honest I’m not entirely sure what that means. When and to what, exactly, are they referring?

Evidently, for each of us that blissful, “golden” time is going to be different.

I also recently read an article in the journal Nature that discussed a scientific study about people’s perceptions of moral decline. The study showed many people believe that for decades now morality has been in a steady state of decaying, not only on the individual level but the generational level as well. For many, people were simply better people in the past. But the study also showed that this isn’t true and the perception is an illusion. So, why are we so inclined to think the best is behind us?

The concept of a Golden Age is actually very old. It’s believed to have come from the ancient Greeks who described five ages of humankind, the “golden” one simply denoting a time when people were good and generous, living in peace and without want. Definitely sounds like a place most of us would want to be, but to my mind — at least in theory — those conditions could exist in any time and place; they don’t have to be only a refuge in the past.

In the European History courses I’ve taught over the years, I’ve had to cover the period known as the Enlightenment which largely spanned the 18th century CE. On some levels this seems to have been an idealistic time that was also a crossroads for humanity in lots of ways. For many of the intellectuals at the forefront of that movement they embraced the idea of “progress” and suggested that the Golden Age was not in the past but rather in the future and something worth working toward.

Whether their perception was right or not, it’s something worth thinking about. I mean imagine seriously accepting the idea that we have peaked in the past, never to reach that level of fulfillment, achievement, or contentment again. If that’s true, it begs the question, “why even get out of bed in the morning?” As a goal-oriented, generally glass-half-full type person, I’m not someone who can really get behind this notion.

I think the reality of the mythical search for a Golden Age is that it exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time. As my husband is fond of saying, the only constant is change, so by definition we are always simultaneously living in, working toward, or moving away from a Golden Age. I think I like this notion the best.

The truth is we will always have both Dark Ages and Golden Ages — oddly, often at the same time. Being a human is tough. There is lots of suffering in the world and we are capable of doing terrible things to one another, so it’s no wonder we find ourselves often pining away for better times. But there is also love, compassion, kindness, creativity, beauty, and many other ways that we balance this out. So, when is the best time to be alive? In the words of the Roman Emperor-Philosopher Marcus Aurelius:

The longest to live and the soonest to die lose exactly the same thing, for it is only the present moment which one can be deprived of.

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, the Golden Age is now.