Positive invocations of the past are not always mere nostalgia

Evidence

Koselleck does not add that in this rupture the old might be remembered in unexpected ways because the future looked forward to is not experienced as such when it arrives. One should not take it as given, as progressivists tend to do, that all positive invocations of the past are inevitably “nostalgic.” — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 1070

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the Cooper vault thread: Cooper shows how Christian social conservatism re-narrates itself not as nostalgia but as a defense against the dislocations of neoliberal capitalism — parallel structure to Asad’s point that past-invocations are productive of the modern, not merely reactionary. — connects to: The practice of giving thanks is what history could not take away — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 134; Nostalgic tales of community decline have recurred for two centuries — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 57; Heimat nostalgia was not inherently antimodern but could center on industrial-urban culture — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 147 (+2 more)