Suddenly, this seems current:

«One reason that the label “the Dark Ages” has proven so hard to untie from the neck of the Middle Ages is that for hundreds of years—between the sixth century and the first beginnings of the Renaissance in the late thirteenth—the scientific and rational insights of the ancient world were forgotten or suppressed in the west. This was not simply an unfortunate symptom of creeping cultural dementia. It sprang from the deliberate policies of eastern emperors like Justinian, who made it their business to hound out of their world the self-appointed but unfortunately unchristian guardians of priceless knowledge.»

https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/a2987e89-78e4-4fd7-8696-0d29381b5a65

“creeping cultural dementia.” ☹️

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-harvard-dhs-foreign-students-kristi-noem-b8ac80ed

I don’t normally wade into the comments section of anything, but it’s been interesting recently to see the responses by WSJ subscribers (including rating each others’ comments) to some stuff the Journal has posted. Top comment and top reply to that comment, at the moment:

«10h ago

WSJ editorial board: I agree that this is completely un-American and destructive of our best hopes for future prosperity and world leadership. However, your attempt at a false equivalence with the Obama administration’s attempts to reduce predation on students is absolutely disgusting. Please remember that you were the cheerleaders who helped bring on the destruction of what was once a great country. You are not idiots. You knew what you were doing.

10h ago

The Editorial Board did know what they were doing. But perhaps, they are idiots.»

I suspect I’m not the only one who thinks the WSJ editorial board is off the rails, and is refusing to let them off the hook. (I think they’ve been off the rails for decades, from the times my dad used to send me their editorials.)

“The Huns were related in some way to a nomadic group who populated and dominated the Asian steppe as rulers of a tribal empire from the third century b.c. These nomads fought against the Chinese Qin and Han dynasties, and Chinese scribes dubbed them “Xiongnu,” or “howling slaves.” The name stuck, and was transliterated as Xwn or Hun.” – Powers and Thrones (Dan Jones) https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/a73bc9f0-c623-4e46-a134-f601d5b2a766

Hungary.

You’re welcome.

“Nevertheless, in around 395 he broke off friendly relations with Rome’s leaders and had himself elected king of a Gothic coalition now known as the Visigoths. ” – Powers and Thrones (Dan Jones) https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/5d6416f2-7760-481c-a6f8-85cd6b842b1d

Elected. I don’t care how corrupt or limited the election was, this was a pirate captain getting voted into power by his peers.

800 years before the Magna Carta* we’re so proud of. The ancient Greek democracy turns out to have been pretty widespread, I guess, not some pure, heroic ideal in a shining city on a hill.

*Another pirate captain getting restricted by his peers. Actually, I guess I’ll be reading about it in this book.

“When the Huns arrived north of the Black Sea in the 370s, they had displaced the Goths. Now, as they swept into the Great Hungarian Plain, they disrupted other barbarian groups: Alans, Vandals, a Germanic people known as the Suevi ” – Powers and Thrones (Dan Jones) https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/59bb18d4-8c21-43af-8b30-6445c2b33f64

My grandfather’s people! The Schwebisch! (Or is that a dialect? I forget.) Living in Schwabenland, known to the rest of you heathens as Bavaria.

And, yes, as I write this, I am aware that there are those whose people come from Ghana, Nigeria, the Congo, etc., who don’t know for sure, because there’s a brick wall.

We are all descended from emperors and horse thieves. (Dammit, I just realized that’s kind of a male image. Stupid monkey brain.)

““Since man inhabited this globe never has [any other] mortal been granted all earth’s blessings without alloy,” wrote the poet Claudian, who served as Stilicho’s personal propagandist.” – Powers and Thrones (Dan Jones)

https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/0fa46163-3d64-417c-919a-94ba77445a25

“Globe.” Just casually tossed out.

They knew. And had known for a long time.

“Disputes between Roman citizens—veteran soldiers who had settled in the province, for example—would be subject to Roman law. Cases between noncitizens might be left to the preexisting laws of the land, allowing the community to keep hold of an important measure of self-determination.” – Powers and Thrones (Dan Jones)

https://bookshop.org/ebooks/quotes/f90718b3-a6ab-4f13-be29-0a0e1edfb09a

I guess this is how Jesus got turned over to the ancient Israelites? I think I’m missing something, because he still wound up crucified.

…

Ah. He didn’t actually get turned over. What was I thinking?

«Luke 23:13-25 (NRSVue)
Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people, and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. I will therefore have him flogged and release him.”,
Then they all shouted out together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!” (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.” But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified, and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.»

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/upshot/record-debt-republicans-bill.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I08.YJwU.ah-4Gwy5zHo3&smid=url-share (gift)

Reading this book was supposed to be an escape for me, but monkey brain keeps jumping in.

«Septimius Severus, who seized power in a.d. 193 and clung to it until a.d. 211, was born in Libya (Leptis Magna) to a north African father and a Syrian Arab mother; his successors (known as the Severan dynasty) therefore shared this African Arab heritage. The second emperor of this dynasty was none other than Caracalla. So while Caracalla had good political reasons for issuing his edict of a.d. 212—not least widening the tax base during a parlous time for the public finances—it is perhaps not too anachronistic to suspect the experience of being an emperor with African heritage must have affected his thinking.»

An African Roman emperor.

https://www.historians.org/resource/china-and-the-west/#:~:text=The%20force%20which%20reversed%20the,government%20was%20opium%20from%20India.

«Britain chiefly wanted a market in China for her textiles, and all ships sailing from England had to carry a quota of cotton cloth….»

Man. Everywhere you look.

And where did the cotton come from? WHERE DID THE COTTON COME FROM, MOTHERFUCKER?