When you think of the Middle Ages, you might imagine a flurry of unappetising images. Chilly houses with thatched rooves, human waste thrown out of windows into the street, a diet of broth and oats, and gruesome waves of pestilence like the Black Death, smallpoxA disease estimated to have killed 300 million people in the 20th Century. and leprosyA chronic bacterial disease. Once known pejoratively as lepers, sufferers were historically forced to live in colonies, isolated from others..

But social media has given rise to a new nostalgia for medieval life. One user wrote that "medieval peasants worked only about 150 days out of the year. The Church believed it was important to keep them happy with frequent, mandatory holidays. You have less free time than a medieval peasant."

On the surface, it is hard to disagree. Modern Brits rack up an average of 260 working days per year - 3,507 in a lifetime - many of them tied to a desk or slogging away in the service industry. One poll found that British people think about quitting their job around 16 times per year.¹ Many of us find the idea of working in the fresh air, eating natural foods and living in a small village increasingly appealing.

It speaks to several of the conditions of modern life. Some think that we are too connected, too overworked, too online. Studies show that we are increasingly alienated from our work, contributing to record low economic productivityThe rate at which an individual, company or group produce work or make something. .

Some think it is crazy to idealise the Middle Ages. It was a period of intense superstitionA belief or practice that is not entirely based on facts or reality.. Consecutive waves of the Black Death in the 14th Century wiped out one third of the population of Europe.² Brutal conflicts were omnipresentAlways present., including the Hundred Years' War between England and France. There were ghastly executions and spine-chilling torture methods that would shock the modern citizen. Many people did not make it past the age of five.

Others say it is natural that we should feel nostalgic for a time when work was truly fulfilling. The classic utopianImpossibly perfect. The term comes from an ancient Greek phrase meaning "no-place" invented by Henry VIII's chancellor, Sir Thomas More, in 1516, as the name of an imaginary, ideal island. socialist novel News from Nowhere, written by William Morris, imagines a protagonist who awakens from his life in the late 19th Century to a simple agrarianUsing the land for farming. society where there is no money, no private property, no cities and no concept of class.

Certainly it is odd to look to the past as an aspirational goal. After all, this was supposed to be our future. John Maynard Keynes, one of the founders of modern economics, predicted that we would be wealthy enough by 2030 to work just 15 hours per week.

But Keynes got it catastrophically wrong. Just seven years before his goal, not only are we working ourselves to the point of burnoutWhen someone becomes physically and emotionally exhausted after working hard for a long time. ,³ but our health is also deteriorating due to our gruelling work schedules. According to a 2021 study by the World Health Organisation, overwork killed more than 745,000 people per year.⁴ Anxiety, depression and other mental health disorders are more prevalentCommon. than ever in recorded history.⁵

To some, it makes perfect sense that we would dream of a peaceful life in a small village. The modern world is claustrophobic, surrounding us with noise, people and buildings. Carrying medieval life lessons into the present age might be the perfect antidote.

Yes: Fresh air, living in a close-knit community, eating natural and unprocessed foods and doing honest work with more time to spend with family and friends... To the modern person, it sounds like utopia!

No: A life without internet, modern medicine and fast food would not be for everyone. Not to mention that rates of illiteracy would be so high that you would probably not even be able to read this article!

Or... We should aspire to bring in some principles from our shared past to modern life. There were plenty of things to admire about how people worked and viewed leisure in the medieval period, but it does not mean that we should regress into the past.