The Medieval Era Was Not 'The Good Old Days'

    The Middle Ages are often used as an example of a time when life was simpler, however this point of view is wildly inaccurate. The things that people have used to justify this belief are comparisons between Medieval people and people nowadays, such as the average number of work hours. While on paper this may be true, life in the Middle Ages was very different. A person in the modern age might take time to relax and pamper themself on a day off of work, but working class people in the Middle Ages did not have that kind of luxury. Instead, they would spend their time off doing chores, most of them having barns with animals that needed tending, milk to be harvested, and stables to be cleaned. Another example of a misconception about life in the Middle Ages is that people were happier back then. In actuality, people back then probably felt the same way about people who had lived centuries before them, especially since those who lived in earlier times were to be closer in time to the creation of the Garden of Eden, and therefore more holy. There is also a huge lack of primary journals written by Medieval commoners, mainly because most of them never had access to education and as a result, were illiterate. This lack of first-hand accounts of living makes it virtually impossible to know for sure what life was like for those people. 

    I think that this article brings to light an important issue that many people don't think of: humanity's constant dissatisfaction with the way things are. It's easier to look to the past and think, "things were so much less complicated back then," in an attempt to escape circumstances we're faced with now. We can convince ourselves that those people had it easy, because, by gosh, how could things be more complicated than they are now? In reality, humans just need to learn that the world has always been this messed up--just in different ways.