Just when you thought that ignorance and idiocy wouldn't drop lower.
It does make some sense the fundies romanticise and idealise the medieval era and the dark ages: these were the times when Christianity was de facto. Most people of the time viewed it as undisputable reality. They believed, according to my literature studies, that life was a valley of grief and suffering before Heaven.
Fundies would have a masturbary fest over the era as their mentality is precisely from there. Then again, fundies aren't excatly reknown historians to begin with.
Nevermind such things like how feudalism was far, far, far worse then any nightmare of commercialism. Commercialism at least pretends that you are a person, to be treated with respect and dignity. Feudalism was a systematic approach of beating you into submission and doing what was essentially, slave work. I say slave work because you didn't have that much choice in the matter, especially if you were a woman.
Your entire life was deceided on one thing, the one thing that was never under your control: whom you were born to. It didn't matter if you were a peasent or a noble: your life was pre-written by your parents and you can only best hope that you enjoy it.
Or if you were very lucky, you might join the priesthood and live a life of solitude, quiet study few will care about and of guilt and misery.
But let me give you a brief idea of what you might be:
You might be a peasent, in which case you pretty much were a serf that was allowed to work the land but did not own it. This meant that you had to toil allot of land and whatever you grow will be only halfly be yours if you get any at all. You pretty much had no rights, aside what you established within the community, which was pretty much self-governed by laws laid out in the Bible and whatever the Kingdom had. Usually, the Bible word's was the preacher's, who had little to stop him to twisting it to his own end. If he didn't, then you were constantly told how you were a peice of shit that shouldn't exist for just existing or for everyting ranging from being human to pretty much anything that wasn't about giving to the Church. Oh, did I mentioned that if bandits came you were pretty much on your own? And that some of the landlord acted like he owned you, as he did and did pretty much as he pleased with you and your family?
I don't know about other countries, but mine once had something called "the right of the first night" which translated that a lord could fuck a virgin of his choice and there was nothing you could do about it. Oh, and anyone getting excited, no, the child was usually not considered a relative or sometimes even a bastard. They were considered orphans, if anything at all.
Then there was the nobility that also had priests calling them shit too. While they weren't at the risk of starving, they had the happy life of either looking over their shoulders of playing spy games with other nobles. Or just trying to not piss them off. Keeping your secrect life secret and trying to hide things that you were told in your entire life are evil and sinful, like having a lover as opposed to the husband you hate and never wanted.
If you were a man, you were expected to be a soldier and kill people. If you were a woman, you wouldn't considered more then property, just more expensive and delicate. Don't let any of the romantic literature fool you: your life was written and you were pretty much a slave that did what was told of her.
Medieval war was bloody, dangerous and horrible. Plagues and starvation is what usually killed most of the army rather then the enemy, which included anyone from random pagans to other Christians for no other reason then that the lord commands it. Again, don't let the code of chivarly fool you: knights were just as good-natured as today's soldiers. Except that they usually believed themselves superior to your average man and wore much better gear then your average foot soldiers. Not that you were that much less likely to be killed. Your fellow soldier was just as likely a pyschopathic person that reveled in what he was doing.
So, yeah, medieval life. It was great. Please note my sarcasm.
Compared to today, medieval life was dirty, barberic and delusional. I prefer my heartless consumerism, thank you.
