A 14th Century Warning of 21st Century Demagogues
In 1978, the great American historian Barbara Tuchman published a book entitled A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century.
She portrayed the experience of France and England — the US, of course, had not yet been invented — through an era that makes our own, at least in Western Europe and most of North America, seem a haven of peace, prosperity and justice.
The diaries, letters and records of the 14th Century lay bare the horrors created by a breakdown of law and order. Weak administrations, at both national and local levels, caused boundless misery.
Those of us who inhabit ordered societies should realize how ghastly is the plight of millions who live beyond the shield of justice.
Many peoples of medieval Europe experienced the decline or outright collapse of respect for their institutions — the monarchy, the Church, the law. Tuchman wrote in 1978 that many historians avoided study of the 14th century, “because it could not be made to fit into a pattern of human progress”: The autocratic order was failing.
Today we see the West in deep trouble, especially in its confrontation with its Russian and Chinese foes, because the democratic order struggles to meet the needs of voters in many of the societies in which it holds nominal sway.
It seems increasingly apparent that the most conspicuous beneficiaries of the retreat from US hegemony, notably in the Middle East, will not be any nation-state but instead non-state actors such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Perhaps the foremost message of the 14th Century experience is that we must continue to cherish faith in worthy leaders, principles, values, the concept of truth.
If we dismiss these things, we become prey to follies, failures, charlatans, and – ultimately -- to anarchy.
Max Hastings Bloomberg 11 februari 2024
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