this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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You don't know how bad peasants actually had it.
I usually take these post less as 'look how great peasants had it' and more 'look how much better we could have it'.
This idea that peasants had it better because there were more "holidays" (which were feast days for specfic groups and religious holidays, mass was not optional) is asinine. There are good reasons they had a shorter expected lifespan.
There's a staunch libertarian view on Lemmy, wherein people will advocate for personal liberty ahead of technological progress. The Country Mouse has it better than the City Mouse, because he can own a gun and drive a big truck and smoke weed without the neighbors ratting him out to the cops. The lack of basic amenities - subways and school systems and high speed internet and big medical centers - is worth the increased personal autonomy.
The "Serfs had it better" trope takes this to its logical conclusion. Rolling back the technological frontier 500 years is worth it, because the surveillance/police state and the corporate oligopoly even on the fringe of society is seriously that bad.
I don't agree. But I can't really argue against it. This is just a personal preference. Its not any kind of objective truth.