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My wife likes to watch old episodes of the TV show “Fantasy Island,” courtesy of Comcast Cable’s “On Demand” feature. A recent episode involved a couple who wanted to escape all of the ills and rudeness of contemporary society and go back to the “good old days.” They felt that things in the past had to be better than things right now. Mr. Roarke, in his seemingly infinite wisdom, decided to place them in colonial Salem. What these people found was a society overburdened by rules and harsh punishments, all seemingly at the whim of the leader of the town. The climax of the story, of course, was when the island guests were to be burned at the stake. The lesson learned was that things were not always better yesterday and that things are not as bad today as we think they are.