What does «declinismo» mean in Spanish?
- Belief that something is experiencing a significant and perhaps irreversible decline, usually attributed to the country, the economy, the political system, adolescent behavior, etc., and which, generally, has no real basis. In declinism there is a negative evaluation of the present time with respect to the past, which is viewed with a certain nostalgia; in turn, this pessimism extends to the future. This illusion or erroneous perception probably has its origin in mental mechanisms where negative memories of the distant past are repressed in favor of positive ones, in addition to a greater amount of memories due to all the new experiences lived during adolescence and youth.