GUEST, Shimrod said "I feel fairly relaxed about being 'fixated on the past' - especially as a large majority of people in our culture seem to be fixated on ignoring or rejecting the past.
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I am 100% with you on this, and we have next door a good example of what happens when a large majority is fixated on rejecting the past: The Netherlands. I lived there for 7 years and was seriously disappointed at the dearth of traditional songs or even tunes. This can only be partly attributed to the country's puritan past; the greatest factor is the inbuilt attitude that the Dutch have that new is best and old is worn out and irrelevant, fed by their general outward outlook in life (inquisitive explorers, successful traders with far away places, and only a tiny country of their own).

The only songs left there seem to be sea shanties, many of them translations of English ones (understandable as there often were mixed crews). And up in Friesland they are busy writing new songs in the tradition now, again mostly about the sea (Nanne Kalma has written some crackers and has been awarded the country's highest honour for this, equivalent to a knighthood). But songs about farming, hunting or fighting - none left. It's not as if they didn't have their fair share of wars...

Just to the south, the Flemish have done a slightly better job of preserving their traditional songs (the Antwerp Song Book of 1645 has some real beauties); and I argue that this is because of their more inward-looking approach to life that places more value on the old and on the past.