U.S. Politics Is Returning to the Middle Ages

As many of you know Donald Trump is running in the 2016 presidential race. In the beginning of the article the author states that Trump provides viewers with showmanship and theatrics, which relates to the plays and spectacles that we just learned about in the town of York. While we were studying the Crucifixion, Dr. Mann showed us an example of how this story would have been played out on the streets by actors in order to entertain the audience. Is Trump possibly doing the same by using theatrics to win voters?

Trump also stated, "All I know is this: We're living in Medieval times." "We're living in an unbelievably dangerous and horrible world." 

Gini Graham Scott explored Trump's statement and attempted to answer the question of, "Is the violence and economic inequality that pervades the world today analogous to the peasant uprisings and rampant warfare many associate with the Middle Ages?" 

In her new book, "The New Middle Ages," Scott compares our country's widespread economic inequality to what was seen hundreds of years ago in Europe. She studied numerous television shows that dealt with the middle ages, the Tudors, and monarchies and noticed how the wealthy lifestyle was being portrayed in regards to the lives that peasants were living at that time. An example that Scott used to explain this inequality is the Kardashian family. We all know that this family is very wealthy and we even get to see how they live because they have an entire show on the E network. The people living these lavish lifestyles seem to be running the conversations we have and with full access to the Internet, we are able to see how different these people live from others who don't have as much money as the Kardashian family does. 

Through social media, television, and the news we can clearly see how "the other half" lives in our world. They have lavish lifestyles, drive expensive cars, live in mansions, and they have people who work for them. While the other half of society may have to use public transportation to get place to place or may not be so fortunate to have a roof over their head. I took this article and related it to "The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle." In order to win Sir Gromer's challenge King Arthur must find out what women desire most. When he decides to give up he encounters Dame Ragnelle and because she isn't beautiful, King Arthur has his nephew marry her so he can win Gromer's challenge. This example clearly shows that the king used his power over his nephew in order to get his way. 

My question for everyone is, Do you think our society's economic equality match those of the middle ages? Why or why not? I am very curious to hear your thoughts! The link to the full article is provided below. 




Scott said she studied Tudor history to help show how lavish lifestyle was for the royals in the middle ages. Here is Hampton Court Palace where King Henry the eighth liked to spend most of his time!



http://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/11/19/us-politics-is-returning-to-the-middle-ages