(June 18, 2015 at 7:37 pm)Dystopia Wrote: Do you think the dark ages were really dark or do you think it's an historical period like any other with ups, downs and averages? Do you agree that specialists and the common citizen overreact on the bad side of the dark ages?
The Dark Ages, particularly the five centuries after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, were pretty much as bad as it gets in Europe. The constant feuding between petty warlords along with the growth of the feudal system and the depredations of the church were enough to make the lives of the populace pretty miserable...unless you were in the top 1%. You know, the model that modern corporate crooks think would be just wonderful.
Throw in the collapse of urbanization, commerce, education and sanitation and the situation seems pretty dire to me.
And then...halfway through this period...the Viking raids started!
