These will be known as the “Uncivilized Years.”
Thanks for posting. Interesting and accurate, as long as we remember it’s the argument by the defense attorney, not the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The prosecution has a good argument also.
ping
Michelangelo (1475-1564) belongs in the Renaissance, not the Dark Ages, a name given to the period roughly between the deterioration of the Western Roman Empire and the later Middle Ages.
“Dark Ages” ping
Feminism will be the future barbaric rule of women getting revenge on men, once they get into power.
The Feminist’s dominant rule once they have achieved and gotten the power they crave and lust after will be the genocide of men, that’s their final goal.
The same barbaric rule by the homosexuals when they both rule together with the feminists to wipe out men and Christians.
Thanks, a needed antidote to the anti-medievalism so common in our educational/media complex. The Medieval period was when Western Civilization was formed, and the medieval people were our forebears.
Much depends on precisely how we define the term "Middle Ages".
The centuries following the Western Roman Empire's fall are usually called "Dark Ages", followed by "Middle Ages" then "Renaissance" in Western Europe.
Of course, the Dark Ages were not so dark in the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Renaissance is said to have begun & ended over a period of centuries, depending on which part of Europe we're talking about.
The Middle Ages themselves are often divided into Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages, each with distinguishing characteristics, depending on time and place.
But the bottom line is: if we pick out just the best of each age, then it will have much to recommend it.
Conversely, if we focus on just the worst of each age, then it will have much to condemn.
Just as Charles Dickens said of Paris and London during the French Revolution:
In the minds of many, the “Medieval Era” seems to encompass everything from the last days of the Roman Empire (West), the Fifth Century, to the latter part of the Age of Discovery. Even the title (The Not “So” Dark Ages) seems to equate the “Medieval Times” with the Dark Ages.
BEEP!
We are currently experiencing the ‘dark ages’. And it gets darker daily.
He makes the mistake of conflating the “dark ages” with the “middle ages”. Otherwise, good post.
Many days of back-breaking work broken up by many days of feasting, drinking and debauchery, that even our college fraternities of today would have trouble keeping up with.
During the cold winter months, when there was little work to do in the fields, casks of beer, mead and wine would be opened and animals of all types would be roasting on open-fire spits.
There was a period of time between mid-December and New Yeere's Day where the feasting would reach a peak. Men would dress as women and women would dress as men and they would be "wassailing", in which bands of them would show up at the doors of the rich, and demand "treats". Yes, it was the origins of our modern tradition of "trick or treating" on Halloween. Only back then, it was the adults who did it and one can only imagine the hangovers as they would get "quite in their cups" so to speak.
The rich tolerated this as it allowed the peasants to blow off a little steam in a relatively harmless fashion. Interesting to note that as North American began to get settled in the 1600s, Christmas celebrations was actually banned as the Pilgrims and Puritans did not want that kind of debauchery repeated over here.
Eventually, Christmas was resurrected in America as a domestic holiday with a heavy emphasis on commerce. The entire retail industry was initially built around the Christmas tradition of exchanging gifts and consuming mass quantities of food and drink.
Ping
Just finished reading “The Greatest Knight” about William Marshal.
This was a guy around whom Chuck Norris would have worked very quietly. Really.
But based on what I read, the Dark Ages really were dark. For instance, bad King John (the subject of the Magna Carta) liked to dispose of prisoners by putting them in prison and forgetting about them. Naturally, they starved to death. This was when he was in a GOOD mood.
Oh, and Michelangelo was a RENAISSANCE painter, not a a dark ages painter. And plenty of good stuff is still painted today. Michael Whelan, Stephan Hicks, Don Troiani and bunch of other come to mind.
In truth, this is a Golden Age. Our “poor” have problems with obesity. We have potable water in such quantities that we flush toilets with it. We have light, heat, and entertainment available at the touch of a switch. Knowledge is down the road in the library and the bookstore.
I gripe and groan as much as anybody about how bad things are getting, but this guy is way off base.