Professor Esolen on the 'Dark' Ages.

This touches on some things I have been saying for years.

There is a poem by Auden wherein he asks how is it that Chaucer, Gower and their ten thousand brothers anonymous lived through the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, the War of the Roses, a hundred other calamities; a time wherein one third of the population did not see their first birthday, and half did not see their tenth; a time where a scratch or a mere toothache could be fatal, and yet write poetry about joy and ...happiness, of taking what delights were to be had, of seizing today because tomorrow may never come? We are in every material way immeasurably better off than they, yet we are depressed and medicated and constantly seeking counseling for the troubles we imagine for ourselves. We have forgotten the small pleasures because our lives are glutted with pleasure and entertainment, and we are resentful that there is not even more. Their real misery meant that they could embrace the good times with all their hearts, and taught them the wisdom that is now forgotten: that life is both to be endured and enjoyed.

That, and yes, they were a whole lot smarter than they are generally given credit