Lately, I see that many people in social media use past as a way to be angry instead of using it as experience for better today. This is not unique for a single place or single society. This has become an universal problem. In my opinion, the major reasons for this is "Victim Mentality".
Simply put, for some people blaming someone else for their failure has become the easiest way to justify their failure. The unfortunate thing is, they use this tactic to even comfort themselves. In some cases, some people striving to become leaders use full or partial truths from past to ignite hatred between people and communities.
Apart from this "Victim Mentality", there is yet another way past is being used by some people to self boost themselves. I call this "Those Glory Days Mentality". These people will only want to remember past selectively and go nostalgic about them. Most probably, these people as individual or community have some how not doing well compared to their past. So, they tell others about the good old days when they are doing well. Many times, I believe it includes good amount of imagination.
If I were to answer which one of these 2 is better/worse. I don't have an answer for that. While "Victim Mentality" leads to hate, "Those Glory Days Mentality" will lead to "Victim Mentality".
There are plenty of examples all over. One example from my home country is about the nostalgia of some Indian's about their past. They keep saying things like "Vedas have answers for everything".
If we listen to them, they will keep saying similar things always. If we ask them, how come such a super power lost its glory and so many people their are suffering now. Their response will be standard, they blame invaders and foreign rule for that. If we ask them a second question, how can a foreign power defeat such super power. Many of those nostalgic people don't have answer for that. They will simply get angry on us for questioning them.
While above example is specific to India, you can find similar examples all across the world. It is true that every culture, language have their highs and lows during their 1000's of years of their existence. Similar highs and lows are going to continue in the future.
I am not saying that we should completely forget past and only live in the present. That is not ideal as that will result in same mistakes getting repeated. In my opinion, people should only remember history so that they can avoid repeating the same blunders. But, shouldn't use that to judge others for the sins of their ancestors.
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