Member-only story
The new feudalism
How America is institutionalizing inequality
We love to think of Medieval times as something totally unlike how things are today. But the truth is, from a global perspective, they really weren’t all that long ago. The Renaissance occurred less than 600 years ago. And yet homo sapiens have been around for about 200,000 years — even that a drop in the bucket compared to the history of life at about 4 billion years.
So the people back then really aren’t all that different from the people of today. There may have been different technology, a different overall level of education, and a different level of sophistication. But in our deepest fears, hopes and beliefs, we are still those same people who were around at the time of the Knights.
Most of us weren’t knights, though. The genesis of feudalism came as the Roman empire was falling apart. During the nearly 500 year-long pax Romana, Rome had kept the peace and enforced its laws. Although those laws were far from perfect, they did bring a sense of stability and order to society. Indeed, much of the world, including Louisiana, still abides by a legal system based upon Roman law. As Rome started to lose its ability to enforce its police powers in the provinces, however, a power vacuum developed.
