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Enjoyable read. People as a whole aren’t typically nostalgic for the Middle Ages specifically, but because of what they feel like they are losing because of mod

Enjoyable read. People as a whole aren’t typically nostalgic for the Middle Ages specifically, but because of what they feel like they are losing because of modernity - culture, civic pride, sense of belonging, time, and place, and a sense of purpose.

daxfohl 1y ago
Yeah if anything I'd say people imagine things to be worse than they were. At least in the American education system, there's Rome, then 1000 years of plagues and misery, then the Renaissance. I was shocked the first time I went to a preserved middle ages village in Europe, and it was a moment of realization that the middle ages weren't just dead people carted around on wheelbarrows.
- phist_mcgee 1y ago
  Although a westerner transplated back 1000 years would be utterly shocked by the level of disease, childhood death, and complete lack of modern medical care or basic germ theory.
  - vintermann 1y ago
    No, I don't think they would, because we already know that. I think they'd be more surprised at what hygiene there was, e.g. the extensive bathing customs.
    - weregiraffe 1y ago
      You can know something and still be shocked when you encounter it in real life.
- RGamma 1y ago
  Depends where and when exactly as well as who you were, I guess. I've been to two LWL open air museums near my region. They gather original buildings in their respective area (not a particularly rich one) from the ~15th to ~18th century, as well as tools, legal documents or weapons and while that doesn't represent an entire village community, I wouldn't want to live in any of them. Nideggen Castle also didn't look very comfortable, to put it mildly, but apparently it was luxury accommodations for the aristocrats. Hygiene, food security, personal safety, the justice system all pretty much sucked back then. Not saying everything was bad all the time, but many more things were bad much more often. Let's never go back. P.S.: Highly recommend these open air museums!
intalentive 1y ago
It’s the same as nostalgia for the 1950s. People don’t want to live in an economic zone, they want to live in a stable community.

daxfohl 1y ago

Yeah if anything I'd say people imagine things to be worse than they were. At least in the American education system, there's Rome, then 1000 years of plagues and misery, then the Renaissance. I was shocked the first time I went to a preserved middle ages village in Europe, and it was a moment of realization that the middle ages weren't just dead people carted around on wheelbarrows.

phist_mcgee 1y ago
Although a westerner transplated back 1000 years would be utterly shocked by the level of disease, childhood death, and complete lack of modern medical care or basic germ theory.
- vintermann 1y ago
  No, I don't think they would, because we already know that. I think they'd be more surprised at what hygiene there was, e.g. the extensive bathing customs.
  - weregiraffe 1y ago
    You can know something and still be shocked when you encounter it in real life.
RGamma 1y ago
Depends where and when exactly as well as who you were, I guess. I've been to two LWL open air museums near my region. They gather original buildings in their respective area (not a particularly rich one) from the ~15th to ~18th century, as well as tools, legal documents or weapons and while that doesn't represent an entire village community, I wouldn't want to live in any of them. Nideggen Castle also didn't look very comfortable, to put it mildly, but apparently it was luxury accommodations for the aristocrats. Hygiene, food security, personal safety, the justice system all pretty much sucked back then. Not saying everything was bad all the time, but many more things were bad much more often. Let's never go back. P.S.: Highly recommend these open air museums!

intalentive 1y ago

It’s the same as nostalgia for the 1950s. People don’t want to live in an economic zone, they want to live in a stable community.