As someone who likes learning about history, I often wonder how I’d manage if I were born in a different era. On my worst days, I sometimes feel like I’m just barely managing this adult thing. In these bleak moods, I darkly suspect that I’d just need a few things going wrong at once for my life to completely fall apart. Which gets me wondering about how well I’d manage in different eras of history. Because, as someone living in a modernized nation in the present day, my life is easier, and more comfortable, than pretty much any ancient king you care to mention.
The fact that I’m living in such a comfortable era, but I still feel like I’m just keeping my head above water sometimes, doesn’t bode well for my ability to survive in, say, the Roman Empire, or Ancient China. If work deadlines or job hunting stress me out, I can’t imagine how poorly I’d handle being a peasant in some feudal setting.
On the other hand, if it was all I’d ever known, perhaps I’d have no problem with it. Perhaps the simplicity of how the world was viewed back then would suit me. You knew what the gods you worshipped got up to, and you knew how the very small slice of the world you interacted with worked. With those things understood, you probably didn’t spend too much time worrying about all the things you had nothing to do with. I’m all for making sure everyone is educated, but understanding more of the world does give you a better idea of how many things you don’t understand. And that can be scary. The only ignorance which is actually bliss is your ignorance of your own ignorance.
Still, whether you’re educated or ignorant, you still have to make choices in life, and those choices have consequences. And education drastically improves your odds of making good choices. And, to be fair, as much as I worry about managing modern life, I’ve been able to keep my head above water so far.
I wasn’t sure where I was going with this when I started writing. And now that I’ve reached the conclusion of ‘I worry about this thing, but I probably shouldn’t’ I can help but feel that I’ve done the written equivalent of walking in a circle. So let’s end this here.