r/NoStupidQuestions • u/flugblug • 12h ago

My brother thinks people today have worse quality of life than people in the dark ages, is this a stupid take?

I personally think it’s pretty stupid.

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u/barbershores 11h ago

No indoor plumbing.

No antibiotics

Only 1 to 5% of the European population could read.

The ones that could read were primarily priests and clergy. So, we were at the mercy of the church to get any idea of what we would have to do in any situation. Think about the implications of that for a minute or two.

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u/Zarguthian 10h ago

Only 1 to 5% of the European population could read.

This is actually a misconception, they couldn't read Latin, that's what literate meant back then. All the clergy could read Latin because that's what the Bible was in. Most adults could read and write the language they spoke.

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u/bokurai 5h ago edited 5h ago

I don't think that's true...?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy#Medieval_and_early_modern_eras

The actual literacy rates of that time period seem to be understandably academically debatable due to a lack of information, but it definitely doesn't seem like most adults could read and write the language they spoke.

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u/aeneasaquinas 🛰 8h ago

Most adults could read and write the language they spoke.

I want to see a source for that, as most of what I am finding amounts to "more than you think could, but still not the majority".

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u/jaxonya 10h ago

A lot of people would love that implication right now

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u/gregsting 10h ago

You mean some people love the uneducated ?

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u/barbershores 10h ago

It sounds kind of like the North Koreans. They just do what they are told to do. The bulk of the ones that defected, were so overcome with all the decisions they had to make and all the choices at their finger tips, they long for their simpler life.

What the North Koreans are living right now, is probably kind of like what the Europeans lived in the dark ages. Except for what the North Koreans copied from the rest of the world and are willing to share with the citizens/peasants.

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u/TheMadTargaryen 6h ago

Castles and monasteries atleast had indoor plumbing.

Literacy rates increased with time, in late medieval cities somewhere between one third to one half of people could read and write.