My parents were in high school and college in the '80s, so let's

The words of Finn Wolfhard, “My parents were in high school and college in the '80s, so let's just say I've heard some stuff, man. We listen to a lot of music and watch lots of great films, but the real context they provide from that era is about politics,” remind us that the legacy of one generation is carried not in silence, but in the tales they pass down. What the young inherit is not only the songs and films of an age, but the pulse of its politics, the struggles, the storms, the triumphs, and the wounds that shaped the soul of a people. Entertainment delights, but it is the context of history that strengthens the mind and tempers the spirit.

The ancients always taught that memory is not a burden but a lamp. To know the stories of those who came before is to understand the battles already fought, the mistakes already made, and the victories already won. When Wolfhard speaks of hearing “some stuff” from his parents, he touches upon this truth: the young drink deeply from the well dug by their elders, and the water is flavored not only with art but with the bitter and sweet of political struggle.

The 1980s were a time of shifting tides. The Cold War, fierce and unyielding, still divided East from West; the Berlin Wall stood tall, casting shadows across Europe. In America, the Reagan era burned with promises of strength but was marked too by debates on justice, equality, and the fate of the poor. To be a young person then was to live in a world alive with both possibility and peril. When parents recount these memories, they do not simply recount old tales—they hand down the living context that gives meaning to their music, their films, their laughter, and their grief.

History offers countless lessons of this inheritance. Think of the children of those who lived through the French Revolution. They may have heard stories of songs sung in the streets of Paris, of theaters alive with passion—but it was the memory of revolution, of heads that fell beneath the blade, of liberty and terror, that truly gave those tales their weight. Art without context is but a shell; with context, it becomes a vessel carrying the fire of an age.

So let it be known: every age leaves behind its songs and its shadows. The young must not only listen to the melodies or watch the bright images upon the screen, but must also learn the politics, the deeper forces that shaped them. For the music will stir the heart, but the context will sharpen the mind. And in this union of art and truth, the wisdom of the past will find its way into the destiny of the future.