Post by Mlle Antéchrist on Feb 16, 2011 22:18:43 GMT -5
listverse.com/2011/02/15/top-10-reasons-we-should-revive-the-dark-ages/
Listverse is basically Cracked, but with a less humourous angle. Most of the time, the lists are interesting. Unfortunately, the guy who actually owns the site is a far-right-wing moron, and occasionally lets a list full of fail in through the gates. It gets even worse when he actually writes a list.
Recently, he decided to educate everyone on just how wonderful the middle ages were compared to the modern world. On top of the usual crap about less crime and better art, apparently food was healthier in the middle ages:
Yes, 4000 calories with fewer nutrients (alcohol = empty calories, genius), a greater chance of food-borne illness, and starving to death in the winter because your crops all died out thanks to locusts. Sounds great.
And no chemicals? Not even the chemicals that are naturally present in all living things? Wow!
But that's not all. People in the middle ages also lived long lives! If, of course, you ignore the fact that infant and child mortality rates were much, MUCH higher back then. But if you didn't get killed when you were young, you could live to be old.
And living under a king, without lobbyists, unions, and various human rights laws, was without any downside:
Some other fun facts: The money we have now is not real money, our artworks is less beautiful than theirs, there were no serial killers (never mind that the concept of a serial killer wasn't even known until the 20th century), taxes were fair and low, some people got to be knights, and everyone lived a great lifestyle. An astute commenter also added to the list by pointing out that there were "less fat chicks" in the middle ages.
So, basically, this list comes down to one thing: Jamie Frater knows jack shit about history, science, politics and human psychology, but he thinks medieval tapestries are pretty and he has fantasies about being a knight, so let's return to the 1300s, guys!
For more comedy, check out the "Greatest benefits of Capitalism" list, which may have been a stealth parody on the part of the person who submitted it (though the site owner believes that the list is not only genuine, but also accurate). I'm not against having a free market, but I'm pretty sure that capitalism isn't made entirely of sunshine and rainbows, either. listverse.com/2010/12/24/top-10-greatest-benefits-of-capitalism/
Listverse is basically Cracked, but with a less humourous angle. Most of the time, the lists are interesting. Unfortunately, the guy who actually owns the site is a far-right-wing moron, and occasionally lets a list full of fail in through the gates. It gets even worse when he actually writes a list.
Recently, he decided to educate everyone on just how wonderful the middle ages were compared to the modern world. On top of the usual crap about less crime and better art, apparently food was healthier in the middle ages:
No genetically modified food, no chemicals, no intensive farming, no need for the “organic” label. These are just four of the many reasons that medieval food was better than what we have today. But, perhaps most importantly, none of the food had had its flavor bred out of it in order to make it look appealing to supermarket shopping masses. And, contrary to popular belief, people in the middle ages ate very well. Here is what BBC says: “The average medieval peasant, however, would have eaten nearly two loaves of bread each day, and 8oz of meat or fish, the size of an average steak. This would have been accompanied by liberal quantities of vegetables, including beans, turnips and parsnips, and washed down by three pints of ale.” That equates to around 3,500 to 4,000 calories per day (the average man eats 2,700 these days).
Yes, 4000 calories with fewer nutrients (alcohol = empty calories, genius), a greater chance of food-borne illness, and starving to death in the winter because your crops all died out thanks to locusts. Sounds great.
And no chemicals? Not even the chemicals that are naturally present in all living things? Wow!
But that's not all. People in the middle ages also lived long lives! If, of course, you ignore the fact that infant and child mortality rates were much, MUCH higher back then. But if you didn't get killed when you were young, you could live to be old.
Infant mortality rates were higher than today, but, generally, people in the Middle Ages didn’t have on-demand access to the medical knowledge we have now. And, despite the death rates, most families had more children than today’s planned family structures, which could potentially result in a human population decline, as is already happening in some nations. Such nations include Italy and Russia (contrary to the bizarre and wrong notion that the Earth is overpopulated).
And living under a king, without lobbyists, unions, and various human rights laws, was without any downside:
Unlike most of our countries today, there were no lobbyists, and governments (mostly ruled over by Kings) were not prone to switching policies every other year. In our current system we can expect to see fairly drastic changes to the laws under which we live every few years – in the Middle ages you had the same law (with a few exceptions) for most of your life. Life under a benevolent King was good for law abiding citizens, and you knew that unless the King was old, sick, or off fighting a war, tomorrow would be the same as today.
Some other fun facts: The money we have now is not real money, our artworks is less beautiful than theirs, there were no serial killers (never mind that the concept of a serial killer wasn't even known until the 20th century), taxes were fair and low, some people got to be knights, and everyone lived a great lifestyle. An astute commenter also added to the list by pointing out that there were "less fat chicks" in the middle ages.
So, basically, this list comes down to one thing: Jamie Frater knows jack shit about history, science, politics and human psychology, but he thinks medieval tapestries are pretty and he has fantasies about being a knight, so let's return to the 1300s, guys!
For more comedy, check out the "Greatest benefits of Capitalism" list, which may have been a stealth parody on the part of the person who submitted it (though the site owner believes that the list is not only genuine, but also accurate). I'm not against having a free market, but I'm pretty sure that capitalism isn't made entirely of sunshine and rainbows, either. listverse.com/2010/12/24/top-10-greatest-benefits-of-capitalism/