The battle against ISIS is one more example of how society today becoming more and more like the Middle Ages, a comment Donald Trump made in a CNN interview when he stated that "We're living in Medieval times." More recently a U.S. News and World Report article featured sociologist Gini Graham Scott discussing this phenomenon, as described in her book on "The New Middle Ages." http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/11/19/us-politics-is-returning-to-the-middle-ages
The fight against ISIS and the radical Muslim terrorists has parallels with the Church's efforts to inspire and support the rulers in the Middle Ages in launching the Crusades against infidels in the Middle East that threatened the Christian West. As Scott describes in her book, these Crusades met with varying degrees of success, but the basic impetus was to defend Christendom from the growing strength of the Islamic rulers. As she writes, the purpose of these Crusades in the 11th to 13th century was for the kings and knights to "organize armies to…recapture the Holy Lands for Christianity," and with the help of the Church, the kings sought to "respond to the chaos and violence" of the times. There are also parallels with the Inquisition which was a war on heresy during the High and Late Middle Ages, starting around 1230.
Scott also compares the role of today's media to that of the medieval Church, in the way the media plays a similar role in "supporting various political leaders and movements, as well as placing its seal of approval on the celebrities, wealthy high-profile company owners and CEOS, and political leaders who are like the medieval kings, lords and wealthy bourgeoisie of the Middle Ages." For example, Donald Trump would not have gotten the big boost for his political campaign without the publicity provided by the imprimatur of the media. And now the threat of ISIS and the terrorists, and the need to take action to stop this threat to Western society is supported by the media, too, much as the Church supported the leaders in power in medieval times. This comparison is certainly not to say the media or political leaders are wrong to combat this threat to Western institutions, but just to point out how we are truly living in medieval times.
Scott was inspired to write the book after watching a number of TV series that dealt with the Tudors and monarchies of medieval times and seeing how the lifestyles of the wealthy rulers, nobles, and rich merchants and the miserable conditions of the peasants was much like the contrast between the superrich and 99% today. The rise of ISIS and other radical terrorist groups has developed, too, as a response to the growing inequality worldwide that has triggered civil wars, struggles for power, and mass migrations of the dispossessed, which has provided new recruits for radicals and terrorists around the world.
In Scott's view, the insights from this book suggest that the rebellions of today will gather more and more force as people out of power fight to get power and redress what they see as major injustices due to inequality. As she discussed in her interview, if history repeats itself, you will see the rebellions and wealthy increasingly consolidate their power until a new order emerges from these struggles.
As Scott points out, the book's comparison with medieval times presents a new light on the modern crisis and shows the need to inspire action to reduce inequality before it undermines the social order.
For more information, "The New Middle Ages" is published by Nortia Press.
Gini Graham Scott has a PhD in Sociology from U.C. Berkeley, MAs in Anthropology and Pop Culture and Lifestyles from Cal State, East Bay, and is getting an additional MA there in Communications. She writes frequently on social trends and is the author of several dozen books with major publishers. Her forthcoming books include: Lies and Liars: How and Why Sociopaths Lie And How To Detect And Deal With Them (Skyhorse Publishing in February 2016) and Internet Book Piracy (Allworth Press in January 2016). She is the CEO of Changemakers Publishing and Writing (www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com) and has a website at www.ginigrahamscott.com.
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