One of the world's most erudite scholars on the
Dark/Middle Ages, Umberto Eco, expresses alarm at our medieval mindsets and the
ways in which the post 9/11 era's “dominant political rhetoric echoes back to
some of humanity's darker periods.”
The Middle Ages are periods of decline between two golden ages. The most recent
lasted about 1000 years in Europe, c.500 - c.1453, and were characterized by
“crude pageantry, religious crusades, occult conspiracies and entrenched
hierarchies” and a general disregard for the higher values of morality, truth,
respect, generosity and beauty.
He observes many alarming parallels between the policies of Western leaders and
their medieval counterparts particularly in fomenting “popular support for their
elitist policies by demonizing the Islamic Menace”.
The state of perpetual war destabilizes the world economy and drives local
populations to embrace dogmatic, divisive political solutions to complex
political, social and personal issues.
Eco, who is now 75 and teaches at the University of Bologna in Italy, sees hope,
particularly in the loose affiliation of heroic free-thinking scholars and
thinkers like those who challenged the superstitions and ruling truths of the
West's darkest times from their posts in medieval universities, monasteries and
societies.
While we may be moving backwards, according to Eco, there is plenty worth
protecting and there is still time to resist the call to superstition, blood
libel, fundamentalism and medieval serfdom and to uphold the wisdom of nature
and humanity.
It is in the Dark Ages that was born the spirit of Renaissance. The Renaissance
did not represent a rupture from the past, but the rediscovery of timeless and
universal moral, intellectual and spiritual values and their adaptation to
current needs. History has taught us several times that the worst crisis of
humanity could be overcome thanks to visionary men and women who revived the
transcendent spirit of humanism. Maybe the most valuable renewable energy of the
future is the Renaissance human being… To be followed…
