Can anything good come out of a crisis?
CAN
ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF A CRISIS?
Mario
D’Couto
William
Manchester in his book, “ A world lit only by fire: The Medieval Mind and
the Renaissance” tells us that from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance,
there was nothing significant that happened, in the sense that there was no
significant discovery or invention that raised the standard of human living
other than the water wheel which was probably around 800 A.D. and the windmill which
came around 1100 A.D. Worst of all, it seemed to be a time steeped in
myth and superstition! However, if you have read the books, “The Catholic
Church and Science” by Benjamin Wiker and “God’s Philosophers” by
James Hannam, they give a very different picture where they talk about how the
medieval times laid the foundation for modern science.
The purpose of this blogpost, of course, is not to prove
or show whether science or religion is right. In fact they complement each
other and I would like to think of science as a tool for understanding life in
general and giving thanks to God for creating and making it the way it is [If
you would like more information on this topic, do check out my other blogpost, “Science
and Christianity" https://insightsfromacommonman.blogspot.com/2013/09/science-and-christianity.html]. What I would like to highlight
though in this blogpost/article is about what led to the transition in the
transfer of knowledge form one period of time to another which paved the way
for various other discoveries and inventions.
If you look back at history, there was something known as
the Black Death or Black Plague (as some would like to call it) which happened
around the 14th century A.D. that swept almost 60% of the entire European
continent. It was chaos! It seemed like as though people were dying like flies.
Michael Gelb in his book, “Think like Da Vinci” describes the scene in the
following words, “Priests, Bishops, nobles and knights died in the same
proportion as peasants, serfs, harlots and tradesmen. Devotion, piety and
loyalty to the Church provided no protection, shaking the faith of the people
from all walks of life. Moreover, wealthy families had their ranks thinned
almost overnight, concentrating wealth in the hands of the lucky survivors. While
they would previously have spent this wealth on the Church, the wealthy began to
hedge their bets after the plague and began to invest in independent scholarship.
In what was at first an almost imperceptibly subtle shift of consciousness, answers
were sought outside of prayer and dogma. Surging intellectual energy, damned
for a millennium in ecclesiastical reservoirs, began to flow through the
pestilence – inspired breach.” James Hannam writes on similar lines in his
book, “God’s philosophers.”
From the above quote, there is no doubt that the Black
Plague created a lot of damage to both life and property. But then it also led
to a new era. An era filled with new discoveries. Just to highlight some of the
inventions that came about after the Black plague, they are,
1.
The printing press (which made knowledge
available to the vast number of people beyond the clergy and the ruling elite)
2.
The pencil and inexpensive paper (which made
writing, note – taking and thus recording of learning accessible to the common
citizen)
3.
The astrolabe, the magnetic compass and
the large sailing ship (which resulted in a tremendous expansion of ocean traffic,
international trade and exchange of information)
4.
The mechanical clock (which stimulated
commerce by allowing people to experience time as a controllable commodity. In Medieval
times, people had no concept of time as we understand it today. The vast
majority of people did not know which year it was or even which century they
lived in).
5.
The long range canon (which helped set the birth of the modern nation – state).
There may have been more but these are a few of them. I wonder
if ever the Black plague did not take place, what life would have been like. Would
learning still be restricted only to the priestly, clergy or the elite? It is true
that education did happen but formal education was accessible only to those who
were either of the clergy or you really had to be rich because education was a
very expensive thing back then, way more than what we could imagine today. But thankfully,
things slowly started to change for the better as seen above. As we continue in
our ‘fight’ against the deadly pandemic, I have come across people who sulk and
grumble because of the fact that they are not able to do things that they would
‘normally’ do. But hey, I think there are quite a few things we can be grateful
for,
1.
If you are reading this blogpost, you
ought to be grateful that you are still alive and breathing. Remember, while
you are alive, someone else is dying.
2.
You probably may not get an opportunity to
spend quality time with your family. This is your time.
3.
Speaking of your time, this is a good opportunity
to invest in yourself, to take stock of where you are now, where you came from
and where you want to go.
4.
It could also be a good time to save on
money and think of ways on how you can build and grow your income and minimize
your liabilities (there are many good books on financial wisdom, two of which I
would recommend are Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich dad, poor dad” and Dave Ramsey’s “The
Total Money Makeover”). Remember, in as much as money is only a by – product and
not an end itself, having more of it presents you with more options in life. Getting
into debt is the last thing you want to do as it can at times literally suck
the life out of you (if you know what I mean).
There could be more but these are some of them that I could think of and yes, while we are living in challenging, tough times, it also
teaches us how to be resilient and who knows, someday, there would be some new
discoveries that may soon come up which would be beneficial for the whole of
humanity and if we can make it through these times, we can look back at it in amazement
and wonder, thinking, ‘how did we survive those days’ 😊. Don’t lose heart, we’re
in this together. God love you! Stay home, stay safe, stay blessed!
