Nostalgia is a central feature in how people form, maintain and reconstruct a sense of self and the place of the individual in the world. Nostalgia develops usually in the face of present fears, disquiet about the state of affairs and uncertainty about the future. Confronted with social anomie and disjuncture nostalgia provides a sense of continuity. Totalitarian nostalgia is primarily an aesthetic nostalgia. The mechanism of public nostalgia, especially when it is manipulated by the media, often makes the past more palatable and handy for shoring up present exigencies.
