The idea that medieval peasants somehow had more free time than the average modern american still is absolute bullshit as far as I'm aware. Unless "necessary preparations for survival" count as free time just because it's not contracted work (it doesn't that's not what free time means).

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (3 children)

The idea that medieval peasants somehow had more free time than the average modern american still is absolute bullshit

Paleontologists will tell you otherwise. One reason you had all those giant cathedrals going up in the Medieval Era stemmed from the enormous excess labor just wasting around in between harvest seasons.

Agricultural surplus creates free time. It's the whole reason why people opt for farming over hunter gathering.

[–] IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (2 children)

your highness, the peasants are bored out of their minds

oh yeah? put em to work building some crazy shit before they start killing each other for a thrill

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This but unironically. I've got a coworker who took vacation days to help build a temple up in Pennsylvania. He was incredibly proud of his contribution and happy to participate.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 2 points 5 days ago

That's what I was thinking!

Yeh yeh, I get it, Lemmy, we're all wageslaves now and religion is Absolutely Always Bad(TM) /s...but objectively here...

Things like churches and temples were for everyone to commune and worship and gather. They were, and still are, architectural marvels!

Any of us would be so lucky these days to feel any kind of attachment to our community, and to do some kind of work that we can look at and say "That's there because of us."

It's hard for most of us to imagine, I think, because alienation from the results of our labor and each other is so wildly beyond reason in our lifetimes. Even building is essentially factory work anymore. Architecture as art is mostly dead in favor of brutalist templated concrete cubes everywhere.

Not to mention, we're all constantly burned out and exhausted from meaningless grinds that usually amount to "Have a pulse (optional), deal with people, send emails to nowhere in particular. Produce nothing but Co2."

But I like to think this was a positive thing. Building wonders, being a part of your community, having something to be proud of doing, like a collective hobby.

Lol I know I'm waxing romantically whilst likely being very inaccurate, I'm not historian, but I also think we can take the best notions of the past to make the future less awful...