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ok, so a couple of things've published recently on "neo-feudalism" and a "return to the Middle Ages." these pieces are both nonsense but reveal a lot about popular conceptions of (a) the Euro Middle Ages, and (b) doing history in general. 1/ #medievaltwitter #twitterstorians
this by an urban geographer posits a "return to feudalism" accelerated by the pandemic. there's a whole book apparently. 2/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-coronavirus-is-also-spreading-a-dark-new-era-of-neo-feudalism
and this by a political science professor who specializes in American election law argues that we're treating Pres. Trump like a pope and we should rid ourselves of religious superstition. yay modernity. 3/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/29/trump-isnt-the-pope-and-this-aint-the-middle-ages/
let's move through these 1 by 1 (briefly) then some final thoughts. 4/
first the "neo-feudalism" one. 5/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-coronavirus-is-also-spreading-a-dark-new-era-of-neo-feudalism
it starts with an assertion. this is how the world is now and this is what the world was then. now, no scholar has said anything of the sort for the last 40 or so years. 6/
this field-changing article was published in 1974! Prof. Peggy Brown showed us how such simplistic systems were invented by modern historians to make a political point about the backwardness of the MA and how diffuse politics was across Europe. 7/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1869563.pdf?seq=1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1869563.pdf?seq=1
but the neo-feudalism piece quickly shows what it's trying to do. it's a political attack from the right. the REAL BADDIES here are the smarties who are destroying the real middle class. teachers are the new "medieval church" (who the hell uses the word "clerisy" anyway?) 8/
and more. the "new medieval Church" shuts down dissent on... wait for it... college campuses and about climate change. shocker. 9/
so, in essence, this garbage article has taken Enlightenment nonsense about a caricature of the Middle Ages, but flipped it to make a faux populist argument against education and science. it's a neo-fascist Dark Enlightenment argument. 10/ https://qz.com/1007144/the-neo-fascist-philosophy-that-underpins-both-the-alt-right-and-silicon-valley-technophiles/
the other piece is about not bowing to fascism, challenging Pres. Trump and the GOP, with lessons from the Euro MA. 11/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/29/trump-isnt-the-pope-and-this-aint-the-middle-ages/
the core of the argument is right at the beginning. a very standard "evolution of political thought" narrative saying that the MA was characterized by 2 powers, religous and "secular," that the pope won, and it was only in "modernity" that we cast off superstition/ religion. 12/
this perhaps sounds familiar because it's a very similar trope to the one from the other article. it derives in large part from the 18th century. 13/
from https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/03/07/no-such-thing-renaissance/#31a66e4a3589
from https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/03/07/no-such-thing-renaissance/#31a66e4a3589
medievals lived behind a veil. they didn't understand the world. modernity made us all secular as it needed too. yay modernity. 14/
this is very clear in the conclusion to the piece. the Middle Ages are a stand-in for the political right, via the churches (and the president) that are trying to contravene public health orders.
"Last I knew, Modernity won." smh
15/
"Last I knew, Modernity won." smh
15/
so where are we now. 1 piece using the Euro MA to attack the contemporary left, the other using the Euro MA to attack the contemporary right. but both are understanding the past in the same way... 16/
the Euro MA are a site of origins, somewhere to which neither wants to return, but also a blank template they can use to make points about the present. both are nostalgic for a fictoinal modernity that came AFTER the MA. 17/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/02/05/bud-light-game-of-thrones/#1cbc930f46d9
that past, for both left and right, uses a caricature of the medieval world to justify their contemporary politics. but the foundations of their arguments are made of sand. 18/
but "fact-checking" (which is not "censorship," by the way) alone won't get us out of this mess. 19/ https://eidolon.pub/learn-some-f-cking-history-94f9a02041d3?gi=dcb282911eaf
it's necessary to understand how simplistic narratives about the past are sales pitches. anyone who tells you that this is how it was and only this way is selling something. 20/
history, if anything, shows us possible worlds. things could have been otherwise. people are not a caricature. and this of course goes for the Middle Ages as well. 21/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewgabriele/2019/03/24/historians-as-tax-collectors/#280404e87ae3
in the end, I guess, the past can help us understand the present and future but be very very wary of those who use the past to justify the present and future. #TheBrightAges 22/22
