Dr Paul Moon New Zealand historian and professor at Auckland University of Technology spoke at the club’s last dinner meeting. His subject was “How Nostalgia Affects Our Perception of History”.
His presentation was interesting and thought provoking as he recounted examples of how history can be open to interpretation as opposed to science being based on facts and truth. Human beings tend to forget the “bad” things that happen and embellish the “good’ things. A recent example is when people are asked about their experience during Covid they tended to recall the positive things that happened rather than the fear of dying that was prevalent in the early days of the pandemic.
Another interesting finding was that with the advent of the mobile phone and social media younger people in particular have less interface with history as society moves to living in the present without the nostalgic memory of past events.