Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
Western civilization arose in the 8th century B.C. Greece. Some 1,500 city-states emerged from a murky, illiterate 400-year-old Dark Age. That chaos followed the utter collapse of the palatial culture of Mycenaean Greece.
But what reemerged were constitutional government, rationalism, liberty, freedom of expression, self-critique, and free markets—what we know now as the foundation of a unique Western civilization.
The Roman Republic inherited and enhanced the Greek model.
For a millennium, the Republic and subsequent Empire spread Western culture, eventually to be inseparable from Christianity.
From the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf and from the Rhine and Danube to the Sahara, there were a million square miles of safety, prosperity, progress, and science—until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.
What followed was a second European Dark Age, roughly from 500 to 1000 AD.
Populations declined. Cities eroded. Roman roads, aqueducts, and laws crumbled.
In place of the old Roman provinces arose tribal chieftains and fiefdoms.
Whereas once Roman law had protected even rural people in remote areas, during the Dark Ages, walls and stone were the only means of keeping safe.
Finally, at the end of the 11th century, the old values and know-how of the complex world of Graeco-Roman civilization gradually reemerged.
The slow rebirth was later energized by the humanists and scientists of the Renaissance, Reformation, and eventually the 200-year European Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Contemporary Americans do not believe that our current civilization could self-destruct a third time in the West, followed by an impoverished and brutal Dark Age.
But what caused these prior returns to tribalism and loss of science, technology, and the rule of law?
6 responses to “Can the Dark Ages Return?”
I believe that the dark ages have arrived already; it is just that technology has obscured our view of it. Once technology is removed, like it was in San Francisco for a day when the grid went down, it will be very clear.
Consider, for example, the whole global warming claim. John Kerry, a carbon based life form, declared that we must remove all carbon from the face of the earth. This is nothing more than dark ages thinking. Think of the millions or even billions of people who actually believe that carbon, a building block of life, is destroying the planet because the media said it was.
We frantically reduce our electricity usage or rely on so-called ‘green’ energy (which is not green at all) while we plan to build an extensive network of AI power structures that will use more energy than any human could imagine; all because the media says it should be so. We think as dark age peasants already.
People are living lies and have abandoned the one true God. the Bible is everywhere yet few read and study it. God is turning us over to dark ages.
Reset
It’s interesting to note that according to archeological evidence, after the fall of Rome people lived in the ruins of the Coliseum for 300 years! That must have been a spicy time.
Also, if you want an interesting diversion, look up “The Phantom Time Hypothesis”. Not sure that I buy it but it certainly could be true. If it is, we are living in the year 1700 right now. +/-
It may not be so much as the Dark Ages of yore. But if you look out the window, we are definitely in a social, cultural, and political mix of 1984 and Brave New World. Plan accordingly. Bleib ubrig.
The big difference will be that the KNOWLEDGE of technology, enhancements, etc. is already present, written down, etc. In the Dark Ages, the Church was in control of all information. My personal library is currently in MY possession, and books are everywhere on millions of subjects that could help restore a lot of what might be lost temporarily. And I will certainly agree that depending on how you define it, a version of a new Dark Ages is already here.
Not only could the Dark Ages return at this point it’s beginning to look inevitable.