ABSTRACT
It is very difficult to entirely ignore the past. But since the 1980s, Western culture has exhibited a discernible attempt to decouple the present from the past. In part this trend is fuelled by a palpable sense of Western society’s estrangement from its historical legacy, which transcends the conventional ideological divide. From radical postmodernism to mainstream liberal and conservative thought, the West has become emotionally disconnected from the past. Thus in reference to racist incidents in football, the former British Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, could declare in February 2012 that ‘we will not let recent events drag us back to the bad old days of the past’. 1 His use of the phrase ‘bad old days’ constituted more than a response to a single ugly incident.
