Life Among The Ruins

My Dear Fellow,

While I may sometimes - often - always - complain about my work, I have to give it this: it gives me plenty of time to think and to listen to podcasts and other things I find on the internet.

Today, I found a new old-time radio show "The Price of Fear" which was good fun. Also I listened to some lectures from a Yale professor on medieval history.

He made a point which kind of blew my mind. He was talking about the decline of the city of Rome. It had about 350k citizens during the height of the Empire - down to at most 20k during the Dark Ages.

Apparently, the 20k citizens were reduced to living in the rubble. Camping out in the colosseum and using chunks of its masonry to build new homes. "It sounds pretty depressing," said the lecturer. "But you have to bear in mind they didn't know they were living through the dark ages." 

They didn't?!? How stupid were they?

Mind you, I suppose he kind of has a point. I mean, it's not like they knew what was coming. People didn't go around saying, "I wish these blummen middle ages would hurry up and end!" and "Is it the Renaissance yet?" Very few people knew the Renaissance was coming. I blame poor marketing.

The thing is, said Lecturer, that the people of Rome thought things were pretty good. It was a relatively stable city, they had a Pope, agriculture was being improved by new technology. What's so dark about that?

The lecturer said it was dark because they'd lost touch with the learning of the past. No-one spoke Greek, and Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were forgotten. But on the other hand, no-one thought that this was particularly important. 

"So some scholars would argue that we're living through a Dark Age right now," he went on.

Rude! It is like he wasn't even listening when I mentioned podcasts and the internet before.

His point was, that only 100 years ago, leaders quoted Homer and Virgil at each other. How many of them could do that now?

Another reason to despair at the election of reality tv star Honey Boo-Boo.

I wonder if it's true. Are we really in a Dark Age, waiting for a Renaissance? Bearing in mind that the most famous woman in the world is primarily known for a) making a sex tape and b) having bum implants* it is not looking good for us.

Pull me down a bit of Colosseum would you? I need something to sit on while I wait for a Renaissance. Even a McConnaissance would do.

Parsones

* Hint: Not Angela Merkel.