[Mb-civic] Information Age? More like the New Middle Ages By Eric Jager

[Michael Butler]

Information Age? More like the New Middle Ages
By Eric Jager
Eric Jager teaches medieval literature at UCLA and is the author of "The
Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval
France."

January 1, 2006

IT'S ONLY 2006, and people have already dubbed this new century the
Information Age, the Digital Age or the Connectivity Age. I have a more
accurate name for the 21st century, and I encourage us all to start using it
today: The New Middle Ages.

With the resurgence of legalized torture, rampant religious fanaticism,
widespread poverty and illiteracy, the threat of mysterious plagues,
fascination with magic and the occult and suspicion of science, what else
would you call it?

Nearly 30 years ago, when Barbara Tuchman published her bestselling book, "A
Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century," her title hinted that we could
catch our own reflection in the medieval past. We now live even further from
the 14th century's disastrous wars, popular revolts, religious strife and
epidemic plague ‹ yet the mirror no longer seems so distant. Tuchman wrote
her epochal book after the worst horrors of the last century, including an
influenza pandemic that killed millions, two devastating world wars and the
Holocaust but before AIDS, Ebola and now the avian flu raised the specter of
modern plague, before the fall of communism unleashed civil war and genocide
in the Balkans and before religious extremists seized power in Iran and
Islamic terrorists began attacking Western cities, giving dangerous new life
to medieval words like "crusade" and "jihad."

One of my students once wrote, "Medieval people were so ignorant, they had
no idea they were living in the Middle Ages." He was partly right. Medieval
people thought they lived in modern times ‹ just as we think we do today.
The word "modern" was actually coined by medieval people to distinguish
themselves from the ancients. The Renaissance stole the label of modernity
for itself and invented a prior "middle age" when classical civilization lay
dormant, awaiting a glorious rebirth. The Enlightenment made the "barbaric"
and "superstitious" Middle Ages seem even more obsolete.

We now use the word "modern" as a compliment, not just for ourselves but
also for our latest inventions. But human know-how changes at the speed of
light compared with human nature. Has our collective virtue really increased
since, say, 1348? Or have we confused technical upgrades with signs of moral
progress? Terrorists and identity thieves take to computers with the same
enthusiasm as teenagers and bond traders. Tools are only as good ‹ in every
sense ‹ as those who use them.

Like our gadgets, we ourselves are only temporarily modern, and that label
will be taken from us very soon. What sort of mirror will later generations
find in us? The people of the future, looking back on our violent and
benighted era, may decide to call us "medieval," so I suggest we just go
ahead and accept that the New Middle Ages have begun.