--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> No I didn't necessarily mean it as a joke. There's
> plenty of evidence
> that poor people aren't all that unhappy - and that
> money doesn't
> make people happier.
>
I think that there a something of an Orientalism of the past, for lack of a better term, that wants to see it as a period of unintermittent gloom and doom.
Except for pieces written during periods of deep crisis like the Black Death, I don't get from most writings by medieval and ancient authors that they felt they were living in an age of misery. Then again, most of these authors cane from priviliged sectors of society, so that's another factor...
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