Golden Age Myth Haunted Antiquity

The "Golden Age Fallacy" is the belief that an earlier period of history was better, happier, or more virtuous than the present. The idea is itself ancient: Greek mythology described a lost Golden Age when humanity supposedly lived in greater peace and prosperity before progressively declining through later ages. Similar idealized stories of a better primordial past appear across many old cultural traditions, showing that nostalgia for "the good old days" is far from a modern phenomenon.

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