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I know this is totally not the point of TFA, the parent comment or yours, but apparently the current consensus is that there was no such thing as the "Dark Ages", and it wasn't a particularly illiterate or barbaric age: https://going-medieval.com/2017/05/26/theres-no-such-thing-a...

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Fair enough – I was speaking in a more general sense. A better historical analogy would probably be something like the phenomenon Jared Diamond describes in his book "Collapse"[1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose...

Sure, I know it wasn't your point. I just couldn't resist commenting because I read that article recently :)

Your link is interesting, I didn't know about that book!

> there was no such thing as the "Dark Ages", and it wasn't a particularly illiterate or barbaric age

I don't think that's true: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/15/were-there-dark-ages/

The article I quoted (by someone who calls herself a doctor and a medieval historian, but I have no way of checking her credentials) contradicts yours: https://going-medieval.com/2017/05/26/theres-no-such-thing-a...

Of course, I don't claim to be an expert myself and can't readily judge which of the two articles is more accurate.

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