There is a tendency that one civilization should replace another one that is to be more improved and highly developed. To be more exact, each civilization has it own important role in establishing of culture and developing science. So, could we believe that the Early Middle Ages period has a positive role in cultural formation? And could we call it a “dark age”? Are we in the anticipation of a new “dark age”?
The Early Middle age period refers to the fall of Western Roman Empire, when there was a lack of intellectual awareness and decline in all spheres of life. The art as well as architecture was in decline so that people were under the authority of the church (Robert Stuart Hoyt 44). The given circumstances had a considerable impact on trade relationships, communication and urban life as well. As a result, people were culturally limited and controlled by the church (William Carl Placher 122). Considering all the points, it is reasonable to prove the fact that this era could be called “dark age” due to the above-mention facts on the grounds that in comparison with the Western Roman Empire, cultural heritage of the dark age coming after that manifested not only the decline of art and science spheres but also the human incapability and lack of desire to improve that.
Nowadays we live in the era of high technologies and the internet. This time could be honorably claimed as the period of mobile computing when a person is not able to imagine his/her life without cell phone in his/her hand and computer at home. The modern society is not limited in expressing their thoughts since living in time of freedom speech and press. In other words, the democracy has been in the high. Consequently, unanimity has been replaced by the appearance of numerous parties and movements. Moreover, the development of the World Wide Web net has given the opportunity for the people to handle their business much more effective. Therefore, we could compare our civilization with the Western Roman Empire and in case our civilization fell it would lead to the new coming “dark age”. To my mind, this could happen in case of disappearance of such important areas of our life as internet, mobile communication and the mass media. These are three pillars that should be relied on owing to the fact other spheres of life are not effective for the maintenance of the modern society culture. As for the art development, it should be admitted that it has no perspectives for the reason that the modern society are mostly oriented on material values and consider them more important.
The above mentioned thoughts bring me to conclusion that the fall of our civilization could be more disastrous since the modern culture heritage is too poor and is based on the ancient sources that were transmitted to us. The science growth is the only chance for the revival of the modern society. On the other hand, the Early Middle period witnessed the Renaissance era rise that put an end to the cultural darkness and total control of the church. We didn’t know for sure what future has in its store for our civilization but if it fell it would be a sign for the second birth of a new unknown era.
Works Cited
- Robert Stuart Hoyt. Life and thought in the Early Middle Ages. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1967.
- William Carl Placher. Reading in the History of Christian theology.US: Westminster John Knox Press, 1988.