How Medieval Kings Would See Today

hello and welcome the fire of learning I'm Justin around a thousand years separates us in November of 2019 from rulers like Charlemagne alfred the great basil ii louie the ninth richard the lionheart and so on in that time not only has the Western world grown enormous Lee in terms of population and indeed size to include northern America and Oceania in that but it has changed radically in some ways the lies we live today would be unimaginable to the people of medieval Europe but in other ways well how do I put it some things never change the question of today's video is if Charlemagne or Alfred the Great where any medieval King were transported to our modern world how would they view it what major differences would there be what would amaze them what would depress them well of course this is going to involve quite a bit of conjecture we may never really know for sure what they would think I tried to get an interview but both of my plans they fell flat firstly I tried to buy a time machine but then they sent me a cloning machine and then they were all out of time machines already because of the holidays and well that's just not working out secondly well ooh the spurns Mars Lama anyway though this is a bit of guesswork there's a lot of facts here as well and I think it's useful to do this we can learn a lot from doing it and it can change our perspective on things so let's get to it before we begin I would like to thank Roger Smith Paul Bullock hot and skeleton roadie for being a most recent supporters on patreon they join these supporters who make these video as possible so I supposed to begin I should clarify that the middle-ages refer roughly to a period that lasted around a thousand years in itself there was quite a bit of difference between someone living in 476 ad and 1476 ad and it's important to keep that in mind accordingly I will try to note things which changed throughout that period so let's suppose the apper mentioned medieval Kings are suddenly transported to the modern day to New York or London or Paris or Berlin or your city whichever city you'd like how would they react how would Alfred the Great react well initially I'm sure he'd say ah wonderful the danes have been driven out of london what that but seriously everything around him would be totally unrecognizable and alien as he gathered himself he would hardly be able to make sense of anything it would be a totally alien world the first point that would be immediately clear is he wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone what as an Anglo Saxon or English King did he not speak English well he spoke old English he spoke much more Germanic anglo-saxon language English has changed so drastically over the past millennium that it would be difficult to communicate with anyone except a scholar that knows Old English this would be the case for many other monarchs of many other countries as well the communication barrier could be broken thinks these scholars but it would be more difficult for some monarchs than others many new Latin and could read and write it Alfred the Great could read and write but only in Old English not Latin some monarchs however like Charlemagne could speak his own Frankish language Latin and according to his biographer Einhard a bit of Greek but according to some scholars probably could not read or write it despite having tried to learn this is an interesting and common point one might expect that all the nobility in the Middle Ages could read and write and that illiteracy was a trait of the peasants but indeed in times like the 7th and 8th centuries for example less than 1% of the population could read it was a specialized skill found only among clergy scribes and scholars many monarchs of the dark ages simply never bothered with it their lives didn't require it if something needed to be ridden they'd have a guy for that this was a drop from Roman times where a current estimates are that at the height of the Empire there was about 10% literacy literacy rates would grow slowly over the centuries however until he blocked death in the 14th century after that was over as the Renaissance began people became smarter literacy rates would climb faster and eventually we hit the 99% or more up today in the West in this scenario we're not going to pull a Star Trek and ignore the language barrier but we will assume that it is quickly broken by scholars and translators it would be much easier to communicate with the kings who could read and write rather than those who only speak a language which has not been heard in their form a thousand years but eventually it could be done for all of them Charlemagne would no doubt be shocked to find the common people so literate but how would he be able to tell that they were common people of course clothing would be absolutely alien to him well not clothing in general but our clothing would be alien may be dressing in All Blacks a sign of nobility and prestige or actually these fellows appear to be muses they have lutes and such one thing he might notice eventually is how healthy-looking everyone was now people in the Middle Ages were cleaner than one might expect the face and hands for example were probably washed every day and that sort of thing but common people certainly did not bathe or anything like that on a daily basis especially in winter as they did not have their own indoor baths like the nobles at times did the nobility and clergy did not exactly bathe every day either but a regular bath was expected and in many circumstances required people of such high position could not be covered in filth after all there was soap made from things like olive oil but the good kinds were largely reserved for the rich because they were so expensive and what about dental hygiene again not the best however our modern diets rich in things like sugar are actually worse for our teeth the name and evil diet was and people back then did put effort into cleaning their mouths with things like wine or vinegar rubbing their teeth and freshening the breath with various substances as well so how were generally clean teeth would probably not be so shocking either and there was I would add more dentistry than one would expect as well if you had to get some kind of surgery like getting your wisdom teeth out perhaps there appears to have been a way to even put people to sleep with various plants and alcohol on things there was something called whale from the late Middle Ages which was a combination of things like bile opium lettuce and hemlock that worked like a general anesthetic there was makeup but it wasn't common because the church considered its sinful so that would be new there was also less protection against diseases and more malnutrition that undoubtedly affected appearance in the Middle Ages while the idea that medieval people were completely filthy is a bit of a myth certainly a funny Monty Python joke I still would strongly suspect that to Charlemagne's eyes modern Western people would kind of glow with health in a way that was quite uncommon in medieval Europe another question concerning personal appearance have we gotten taller would Charlemagne be dwarfed by the height of everyone around him probably not height varied quite a bit throughout history as it varies today throughout the world as something that is both genetic and environmental the genetic selection pressures and environmental influences vary quite a bit in general throughout pre-modern history you could say that monarchs Nobles high up people would have been taller than he lower classes again for both environmental and even genetic reasons malnutrition and disease stunted growth the lower classes were of course more susceptible to that but as for population averages it wasn't as if there was a linear move upwards for height throughout all of history the average Roman male would have been about five foot six or about one point six seven meters tall that seems to have been lower than he later averages in the early Middle Ages which may have even been about five foot eight or one point seven three meters the major decline came in the Renaissance era actually when it started dropping to about five foot four or one point six three meters Charlemagne according to modern estimates would have been about six feet tall or one point eight two meters that again is not surprising because the upper classes would have been taller in general anyway the average white male of today is about five foot nine or 1.75 meters so medieval people would have been shorter on average but probably not noticeably bottom line vertically not much of a difference however horizontally well obesity was almost certainly not very common in the Middle Ages if it were present that would have been largely a trait of the upper classes indeed having a bit of weight before modern times was a sign of wealth and hell because only the upper classes could afford to eat enough and also abstain from harsh calorie-burning labor and the modern age when food is plentiful and labor for many people it's lighter that is not the case even most of the nobility and especially clergy weren't heavy though as a heavily Christian time which we will indeed look more into the CETIS ISM was encouraged there was all kinds of fasting going on and a lot of social pressure placed on people including the higher orders in fact especially the higher orders to comply with the fasting and other social norms which were again heavily influenced by religion furthermore most people even if they were nobility had to be quite active compared to today not many people really sat at a desk all day every day people from this era might find that quite strange according to the World Health Organization today about 21 percent of Frenchmen 22 percent of Germans 28 percent of Brits and 36 percent of Americans are obese this would be a bit surprising to Charlemagne if he landed in one of these countries today but the surprises my friends have only begun if these Kings were somehow cast into modern-day New York though they likely wouldn't be looking too closely at people's appearances at first probably they would be absolutely overwhelmed by the technology surrounding them in the city there would be these great towers that extended high to the heavens great iron wagons that moved to and fro and honked at each other some sort of fireplace tin lanterns above them which could be turned on and off with a flick of a switch they would be surrounded by contraptions gadgets machines and items that would be completely foreign to them understanding the modern world would probably take them years and lifee much longer for them to get used to it there would be a lot of things they wouldn't understand but I gather that once the situation was assessed the United Nations would come together and assign a guide for these astray Kings as they journey through our lands whom would they choose why yours truly of course Justin from fire of learning and so you're telling me is that by speaking into this contraption someone a great distance away can hear you immediately and the voice coming from it is that is a voice exists person in return I Solomon is a Word of God but a bow so stiff he blew the ninth might say a sequestered comes with a mere father no actually you're recording your brought your lives streaming right now you're sending that picture across the world thousands of people can see you how about how about you hand that to me sacre bleu you are telling me does that it has made a copy of me inside this box is that thousands of people can see right now in a sense yeah indeed the idea that someone from California Canada England Japan and Australia could be communicating over text in real time something which is taken for granted as a part of everyday life to us would be astonishing to them to contact somewhat a distance away would have required that you go there or send a physical message there and travel took time to journey from one end of the Roman Empire or England to another say Egypt at its height took about two months a messenger could perhaps move faster but an army would be slower the absolute fastest way to send a message was via signal towers yes indeed they really did exist outside talking one example is the Byzantine beacon system which stretched across Anatolia and signaled an incoming Arab invasion it is said that the Emperor and constantinople could be notified from the border of Anatolia of such an invasion within an hour impressive but you can only communicate a limited number of things with signal fires and furthermore they were quite costly and not very common so it doesn't compare to modern standards you can't really send sup bro to your friend or get much of a response in an equally short amount of time why his signal fire and so 99% of such communication was through messages travel in Europe at that time would have been about as fast as Rome or probably even slower given that the Roman system of roads and many circumstances down furthermore traveling alone was dangerous it was not uncommon for bandits to prey on lone vulnerable travelers as a result travel was not too common and indeed few people frequently left their home villages and towns but alone countries furthermore it's important to add that if you were traveling there would have been significant language barriers there weren't really standardized languages like there are today so even in just traveling through France or Germany you would encounter many dialects which slowly morphed into other languages that were very very similar to the kind of French or German native to you but would still cause confusion us modern people don't always understand this especially us Americans who have half a continent that speaks our language but to fellow native English speakers I would suggest looking at something like Scots to get a good feel of what you might expect not Scottish Gaelic but scoffs after Rome fell European societies became somewhat isolated from each other today it takes about 42 hours to travel from Lisbon Portugal to Moscow Russia by car and about five hours by plane ah yes planes how we've managed to get giant metal ships to fly like birds would be another long long explanation anyway and of course a video like this gets from me in Ohio to thousands of people from every corner of the globe within seconds of uploading to YouTube that's another concept the medieval kings might struggle with the Internet not only might Lou the 9th wonder how people communicate on these strange boxes which light up and send invisible messages through the air but he would probably be amazed that simply how much information there was available to us in our daily lives information was much much scarcer in the olden days frankly we have the opportunity to learn more about the world in a day than a medieval peasant knew in his or her entire lifetime books were a rarity in the days of Charlemagne they were expensive to make and reserved for a small fraction of the population to read about the history of Rome for example was a special privilege but to us we just have to sit back and click our computer mouse and someone like me Electra's about it for a couple of hours let's ask the real question though would Charlemagne subscribe to fire of learning come on of course he would what would they think of phones and social media well to be blunt older generations of today find the concept quite awkward and so I imagine people this distant from the modern age would not only find it very awkward but would find all forms of similar technology awkward in the interest of time we can't go into detail about every possible invention but to name other noteworthy inventions televisions radios lighting electricity in general showers toilets and plumbing in general interestingly as a side note Roman plumbing systems like aqueducts and sewers did outlive them and were used to an extent by some cities but not indefinitely air conditioning and heating microwaves and blenders and other machines dealing with food the clothes we wear plastic our pest free mattresses all the various substances and techniques used to build giant buildings mass production paper money even something like the modern pen and paper these would all be wild and new things that would take a lot of time to explain to them as I thought about the things I and everyone around me uses on a daily basis it was quite striking how many things would not be recognizable to Charlemagne or Alfred the Great I turn on my computer and speak into this microphone without a second thought but to richard the lionheart this would be some sort of magic after hours of showing Richard Lionheart how my computer works and getting him caught up on cat videos from 2008 we would both probably get hungry dining together would be a way that he could possibly feel somewhat normal and at ease until of course he sees his options once again he would be bombarded with things that he would not understand all sorts of things that he would have never encountered I do not simply mean all of our modern foods like pizza or chips or various treats or whatever but even very basic fruits and vegetables that are a staple in the modern day I would ask him if he wanted a number of things bananas oranges tomatoes potatoes sweet potatoes pumpkin chocolate corn lemons limes and all sorts of things that his descendants eat on a regular basis but he would likely turn to me and tell me that he has never even heard of these things what was he used to eating well let's start with drinks water very basic was not always clean in the Middle Ages if you could find a clean source people would drink it but if not you'd often drink a kind of ale or wine the upper-class is especially liked wine alcohol people realize to some extent was a fairly clean substance and so even children would have a land things at dinner moving on food dairy and grains were a primary staple Deaton on a regular basis common people ate fish more frequently as well than they did today because it was cheaper and easier to obtain other meats weren't uncommon but they were a bit more expensive there were at times restrictions on hunting certain animals like deer for example in the Royal forests there were of course a variety of vegetables along with various herbs and things like that as well again there is a misconception that medieval people just ate something like grains ale and rocks every day but while the medieval diet was fairly bland compared to our modern one there was a good healthy variety of food available a Lionheart here would have beaten much better than his subjects but I imagine he would have been wondered by bananas oranges and pizza as well we have to keep in mind that so many things we eat today were a result of 15th 16th and 17th century exploration of the Columbian Exchange and the exploration of Asia and Africa ok guys this is called a drive through it's an aspect of what's called fast food essentially all you have to do here is tell the people on the speaker right there what you want to eat from the menu hello may I take your order ah one moment oh let me guess at which point the food appears much like the messages appear from thin air on your phones what no it's a box that sends the sound of us talking to workers in the kitchen and then they make it and this we hand it to you when we pull up to the window though that's that's quite fun do bandits ever ate these kitchens I wonder I I guess sometimes they do yes unfortunately looook I don't know if you guys are on something here but should you really be driving no they're not from around here yes yes these cars and driving through x' and whatnot they're a quite foreign to me though of course I forgot they don't have cars in England ah yes yes indeed we do not just just tell the Voicebox which you want to order right all right yes but firstly a coffee this is caffeine isn't it's quite fun I'm also quite partial to these ball a ball of Fruity Pebbles I must understand how you obtain those you grow them are they indeed mined from beneath the earth I will have large soda pop compared to their world our modern developed world would be a vacation though quite awkward in some ways as well one example is artificial lighting artificial lighting has affected our sleeping habits in a noticeable way many of the people especially deliver classes tended to waken especially at sunrise or a bit before to maximize daylight hours although the nobility who weren't burdened with these same requirements of labour seemed to have been a bit more relaxed about this medieval people also according to Roger a Kirk used to divide sleep into two phases called first and second sleep as there appears to have been a period in the night in which they were active orbit like an hour or two starting at 2:00 in the morning regardless I imagine artificial lighting and our constant use of screens and noise and such things would be quite a headache for them something like going to a movie theater may indeed be a bit over stimulating our concept of personal space in the sense that people have a tendency to prefer their own rooms in such a night maybe odd but possibly something they'd like well they might not like though is that people would also be much more independent and much less family-oriented than they were in the past in the Middle Ages families often stuck together under the same roof for generations and certainly remain in the same settlements the majority of the time in our society people tend to move out on their own sometime in the 20s on average which sometimes involves moving quite a distance away to them a sense of community would be lacking though they would have been better adapted to this than contemporary peasants communities and countries may also be unnerving ly large somewhere like New York City today for example has a population of almost eight and a half million people in the days of Charlemagne Europe's total population consisted of about 30 million people and yet people today feel unnaturally lonely in our society now this isn't going to turn into a Luddite speech about how modernity bad or whatever but I think there is some truth to this I have neighbors I've never spoken to despite having lived here for years it's not because they're weirdos or anything they seem like perfectly fine people and it's not just me being the introvert that I am either furthermore it's not a generational thing either I would say one would expect baby boomers to be more outgoing because that sort of thing was more normal in their lives but not so in all cases this attitude I expect is probably the norm across America but I have to wonder how Charlemagne would view this it would probably be absolutely strange to him that people who lived right next to each other know so little about each other again it's not because they're jerks I wouldn't want anything to do with a jerk neighbor anyway it's just a normal occurrence anyway the news that we've been to space would be mind-blowing these people came from a time when space was hardly understood at all what forces govern the bodies above them and what those bodies were was a mystery to explain that we've sent robots across the solar system and landed men on the moon might not make any sense to them modern astronomy and in fact modern science as a whole would be a huge surprise to them I have to wonder how it would feel to be introduced to all these answers to have wondered all these things throughout your whole life and then to just suddenly have the answers to so many of these questions we take it for granted that we understand all the processes behind so much of what goes on in the world what is a storm an earthquake a solar eclipse how big is the world they knew it was around it's a myth that people thought it was flat Nobles at least were aware of this as it was figured out by the ancient Greeks but they didn't know it went around the Sun these men did not know the Americas Oceania or Antarctica existed and knew little about Africa or Asia beyond the Islamic world in other words they just didn't know the extent of the world and didn't have much opportunity to find out they had all sorts of strange stories and ideas about what far-off lands were like that portrays this the fact that common people are so widely introduced to these subjects would be another impressive accomplishment Charlemagne for example was quite concerned with the education of his subjects and attempted to normalize literacy among the upper classes something like the modern education system would be a miracle to peasants of this era another fact of life that was not understood was disease millions and millions of people died throughout the Middle Ages from disease and people just couldn't figure out why the answer is obvious to us in hindsight but you'd have to recall if you were to tell people that many diseases came from microscopic organisms or in other words invisible bugs they would think you were crazy people did come to a number of intelligent conclusions about diseases though such as stay away from places where play is prominent in our world though not only do we understand many diseases but we have conquered many of them vaccines antibiotics complex surgery healthcare in general would probably be among the luxuries at which they would marvel but most other emergency services as well would be another great feat firefighting in medieval times was difficult it relied on local citizens to use essentially buckets there was much less of an organized firefighting response like there is today or was to an extent in Rome likewise police didn't exactly exist like they do today either order was kept by armed officials but they were often soldiers or local militias the separation of soldier and police officer wasn't quite as common and wouldn't be until the 1800s what they marvel as well at our life expectancy to see so many people not only in old age but even enjoying their old age wasn't the life expectancy of the Middle Ages as low as something like 40 or 30 or even 25 there are some misconceptions about this as well life expectancy is based off an average so that the life expectancy at a given point in the Middle Ages say the 1200s for example was 35 that does not mean that most people were dying of old age at 35 the average is skewed by huge amounts of child mortality in other words you didn't have huge chunks of people dying in their 30s you had huge chunks of people dying before their first birthday or a couple of years after that which brought the entire population average down substantially children have less developed immune systems which is why they gets sick more often furthermore if people were born with an inefficient immune system or a disorder that substantially dragged down their health this would make itself clear pretty quickly and sadly they would not often survive yes modern medicine has certainly allowed old people to become older but if you made it to about the age of 13 in the Middle Ages you had decent odds depending on the context of making it through adulthood into even old age especially if you were a woman men did the risky labor and his time period and labor was indeed risky they were more likely to die from a work-related accident they were 99% of the military with the exception of Joan of Arc type characters and Wars were common all this sort of thing would have made female life expectancy noticeably higher byzantine emperor basel ii who lived to the age of 67 might be surprised to see so many elderly people around and how many of them are in comparatively decent shape into their 70s 80s and even 90s but probably more surprised to see how many babies survived child mortality in the Middle Ages again might have been as high as 50% or even 60% on average the lower classes would have been disproportionately affected may be suffering from as much as 80% child mortality in some periods of intense plague and famine entire swathes of the lower classes in some regions were just wiped out today child mortality is about 1% it's quite hard for us to lose a family member or friend we consider it plainly unnatural to see someone under the age of 50 or so dying but this would have been a regular fact of life to the people about of the seconds time it would have been very calm to have lost a sibling or child going hand-in-hand with this is the cleanliness of our cities now there are certain modern cities that I would not exactly call clean but they're beautiful compared to what some medieval cities were like again though the poor quality of life and naval cities has been exaggerated Hollywood likes to show for example people dumping their waste to just outside of the window into the street and that sort of thing but interestingly enough this wasn't really the norm there were regulations on waste control and moderately effective ways of dealing with it still with all the animals and poverty and pests and such things I doubt we would have called their cities clean by our standards and what about war what would they think of the modern military well how they would view the subsequent history of wars and politics and that is a topic we'll get into in a moment but as for modern warfare I have a feeling they would have mixed opinions about it firstly before is war none of the Kings I mentioned were strangers to and all the Kings in this example with the exception of Louie the ninth I suppose are remembered as warriors Louie the ninth was a warrior it's just not why he became sane Louie at the end of the day it's the same in brutal game one could make a case that medieval warfare was a bit more brutal than modern warfare I'm not sure I would agree with that entirely but it was certainly more primitive he of course had things like archery and artillery but a lot of the fighting was up close and personal in battle you were nose to nose with people trying to kill you in a giant crammed confused adrenaline filled raging crowd granted skirmishes were more common than pitched battles in the Middle Ages despite what Hollywood likes to portray but the point still stands I think as for which style is more brutal in a moment well that's a matter of personal opinion I suppose would you rather be fighting up close hand hand and a giant crowd or would you rather be charging at machine guns it's not the case that there were zero rules of war in the Middle Ages as the Catholic Church moderated it and promoted Christian virtues and held people and armies to certain standards especially when Christians were fighting with each other but there was certainly nothing like today's standards going back to health care if you were wounded in battle and that got infected today we could treat it back then well that's it maybe I imagine they or at least their subjects would have found a lack of warfare quite amiable it would be nice to see how relatively peaceful life is in the West however when war comes to us though it is waged with a threat of industrial scale destruction with such quality of life comes such terrible weapons how would they have reacted for example to atomic weapons again these Kings weren't exactly innocent of starting wars which led to the deaths of non-combatants by the notion that the whole world could be devastated in such a short amount of time by modernized warfare what probably seemed totally ungodly I'm not making a case that medieval looting and pillaging of villages is acceptable I'm simply stating that a nuclear winter would be a very unimaginable and horrifying proposition to someone who hadn't grown up alongside the threat of it we have thus far discussed a number of very relevant things specifically advances made in our society most of them good but some of them harmful naturally though as Kings these men would inquire about the people of this world and how they were governed who were their leaders what did they believe in were they followers of Christ this is where things get a bit controversial but I'm sure most of us are mature enough to handle it objectively those of you who view my channel on a regular basis know of course that I am NOT sharing my opinion on these issues here I am simply doing my best to look at the world through the eyes of a medieval monarch so how would they see modernity I think they would be first and foremost heartbroken to see how many people in the West live without Christ Christianity is of course alive and well most people in the Western world are Christians it is the most common religion in the world to this day but it does not play as close of a role as it does in the average person's life as it used to here in the West people in the Middle Ages were quite religious and people simply became more and more religious until the early modern era furthermore of the Christians of today they would probably view a substantial number of them as radical namely Protestants but even Catholicism they might say has lost its vigor all of the Kings mentioned except Alfred the Great were in conflict with the Islamic empires many of them such as Louie the ninth were quite warm to their own people and to the faithful but punished heretics severely how would lure the ninth react then to find that today 40% of France is atheistic or non-religious how would they feel knowing that the Holy Land or Constantinople were never recovered or that Protestantism was allowed to challenge Catholicism that there is no true clear Rome today that both Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire had fallen I think these monarchs opinions on modern social movements and changes like changes to the family would be what you'd expect but it goes well beyond contentious areas of today into areas that the majority of people agree on too they would view a lot of things we do and much of our society therefore as selfish and sinful of course it's not like people back then were angels but these social standards and controls were different hedonism nihilism materialism if they were to wander the streets of a city at night they may be quite disturbed by what they would see as decadence the modern romantic relationship would be a bit strange to medieval people but not an altogether foreign concept obviously people were attracted to each other for the sake of love in the Middle Ages and obviously people in the Middle Ages had the same instincts we do today but there was a great emphasis on marriage being pragmatic and serving the interests of the family or in the case of the upper classes to serve the kingdom's interests arranged marriages were quite common though there was more emphasis on consent than one might expect women in late medieval Christendom enjoyed a good degree of freedom in that regard compared to the past and in other societies like ancient Greece or the Islamic world intercourse before marriage again happened but was sinful and definitely not the behavior of her fine people in the eyes of the church who greatly valued chastity though mistresses were tolerated by laymen how common divorces in our society would also be shocking annulling a marriage in medieval society required a very good reason which would have to be justifiable to God and in the East especially there were limitations on remarriage even if a spouse died a good example of this being Leo the wise of Byzantium how would they see the roles of modern monarchs of Europe as essentially ceremonial positions and how would they view other aspects of society what would they think of things like democracy that's a complicated question and I'm not sure that there's a clear answer to that one these were all men who claimed ruled by divine right who believed that monarchy was the natural order and that they were chosen by God to lead mankind in temporal matters obviously democracy was not a totally foreign concept to them and they might see the various forms of democracy which have been taken up the West as a kind of harkening back to the glories of Rome in ancient Greece and indeed for the more there were examples of democracy even in many of a Europe but our democracy is quite different from what's existed throughout world history there was certainly no universal suffrage in the medieval world as there is now perhaps democracy would be seen as a kind of repugnant mob rule where the rabble has been free to corrode the soul of their nations unimpeded where leaders are chosen not by the will of God but by how well they can win a popularity contest with the rabble it might be a deviation from the natural order and perhaps they would see all the things that they would consider wrong with our society as proof of that in the West they might view many freedoms as troubling and some aspects simply wrong freedom of speech why should misleading people and undermining order be tolerated separation of church and state how could you separate them why is God not the central focus all the decisions you make these are all interesting to consider how would they see what we call a globalism or globalization well in a way we weren't exactly the first to come up with the idea of globalization the Romans believed that their empire should and was destined to rule over the entire world and this belief was shared by later monarchs like Emperor basil and Emperor Charlemagne however their globalism was about one God one Emperor one Empire our forum of globalism is quite a bit different they may understand the need for such a global perspective in a sense in our time but in another sense may view it as regression and tolerance of pagans and heretics a deviation of the natural order and what about social classes it was not impossible for one to move up in the Middle Ages and certainly not impossible for want to move down but this level of flexibility might be interesting again there are plenty of examples that show that our ideas about the rigidity of medieval socio-economic class are slightly incorrect the dynasty from which basil the second Kane of Byzantium was begun by an armenian wrestler verges Citian - had a humble background it was Charlemagne's father who overthrew the last mayor Benjen king etc still there is a much more meritocratic perspective in our society than there was in the Middle Ages however on average in both that age and even to a good extent in the modern world families tend to stay in their social class for generations what will they think of industrialization and the middle class the ways we work and the jobs we do there are an endless amount of questions we could ask but I think the main one is despite our successes would they view our society as fundamentally flawed or even empty or would they change their minds about some things as they got to know us better naturally one of the first things they would want to know is what happened to the world after they died what happened between their deaths and now perhaps as they reviewed history and were exposed to more and more they would change their viewpoints on some things maybe they would reconsider their views and some of their beliefs would fall in line with modern thinking maybe they would stay true to their beliefs maybe they would adapt in a novel and unpredictable way perhaps they may respect certain aspects of how our world is governed but feel that it's only possible for this world and that it would have been wrong and plausible and even destructive to try to implement such things in the world from which they came we are often reminded to be careful of judging historical figures by the standards of today it's worth considering that today's world would have been disastrous if people attempted to recreate it in a society not ready for it it's a fascinating question that can be debated endlessly a to which we may never have a definitive answer ultimately we will almost certainly never know what they think about our world time machines don't look like they're going to be invented anytime soon therefore the responsibility to understand our world and the past as much as one can falls on us in our study of history I hope you enjoyed this video if so I invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future to help with the cost of producing these videos a patreon donation would be a big help a special thanks to our patreon supporters once again we're also on Instagram Facebook and Twitter so come check us out there too we also now have a fire burning discord so feel free to come join that we have a lot of very interesting conversations there thank you for watching you

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 1,818,185

Keywords: Medieval, king, modern, world, time travel, transport, Perspective, Life, Changes, Society

Id: osdLRaCxa5A

Length: 42min 39sec (2559 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 20 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

so y'all reversed a dream of John Ball