Let it be 1520 again!

Good posts, Kristine. I got more out of them than anything else in this long thread.

I'm a former medieval/Renaissance history professor, and taught these subjects for many years before I gave it up because it couldn't even pay the rent. Many academics in this field don't want to interact with people they call "hobbyists" or "reenactors," so you will find very few of them on forums like these. I disagree, though; in my view, it's always refreshing when people outside the staid academic world take an interest in the history that preoccupies the minds of people like me.

That said, I'm rather dismayed at the way most of the posts in this thread have beat up on Duane. I know nothing about him other than what he has said here and what I can gather from his profile, but one thing stands out: He obviously had a hideous experience with Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I give him kudos for not making more of it; he only mentions it once or twice in this thread, and not anywhere near his first post. How many of us would be so modest?

I have lived through two major natural disasters, both of which caused me to think I was certainly going to die at the time. They both pale in comparison to Hurricane Katrina, however, in terms of scale. The overwhelming thing about the Katrina disaster is that these victims were left to die by the government they trusted, and all we feared about the ever-increasing wealth gap in this country became abundantly clear.

I would be the last person to say that things were better 500 years ago; again, I agree with Kristine on that. But the smug posts on the rest of this thread have left a bitter taste. Who are you to condemn somebody who longs for a better time, whether that's past or future? Have you ever lost everything you had? Suddenly been deprived of all the basic necessities of life, like drinkable water, food, shelter? Ever had streams of shit (literally) flowing by you? I have. So has Duane.

In case any of you have forgotten after so long, here was the entirety of his original post:

"Well if all goes well the Renaissance as it was will come back and undo the 21st century."

Naive, yes. Worthy of the kind of snarkiness and penis-fencing that ensued? I don't think so. In case any of you think I'm defending Duane too blindly, I will say this, after looking at his profile: The vast majority of the dozens of "friends" icons in his profile are of young women in suggestive poses. Nothing wrong with that; I don't believe in censorship. But based on this, I would suggest to Duane that perhaps his fantasy period would be more properly based in the harem culture of the Ottoman Turks of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Before you all go "LMAO" or "RFLMAO" or whatever else you want to do over my above statement, let me offer this: STFU--Shut the Fuck Up. If you haven't lived through the type of pain that this guy has, I don't want to hear your condescending posts. He is not a troll--hello, have any of you read the posts of REAL trolls in other tribes?

And for the record, I think it would be a tough call between the plight of French peasants in 16th-century France and the poverty-stricken "French" descendants--black and white--in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Sure, the latter supposedly had all the modern conveniences, but that's what did them all in. Five hundred years ago, that levee wouldn't have existed, and no one would have relied on a smirking "president" to protect them from the natural elements. Granted, it took the French way too long, but at least they EVENTUALLY got rid of their Bourbon-dynasty oppressors, as barbaric as it was. I'm not suggesting any armed revolts or beheadings, but can't we at least use our so-called democratic government to oust the Bushies?