150 Years that Shook Europe

What knocked Aquinas from the pinnacle so quickly?

Photo by Rashid on Unsplash

Riddle: What’s long, hard, and shakes your very soul?

Answer: A terrible week.

We all have ’em. That week, maybe that month or more, when nothing seems to go right. The horrible stretch makes you think, “Man, what am I doing?”

We then respond in some fashion. Maybe we grow determined. Maybe we cue Johnny Paycheck’s Take This Job and Shove It. Maybe we start a side hustle. Maybe we seek therapy or self-medicate with booze or marijuana. Maybe we renew our relationship with God . . . or fall into the hands of a cult leader.

The existential crisis, in other words, often provokes an essential response. . . . something that changes how we define ourselves.

Society is Man Writ Large

Society, Plato noted, is man writ large. If you want to detect historical or even contemporary trends, you can look at yourself and extrapolate to society today and to historical events. Such an approach is limited and merely one tool for understanding, but it’s helpful.

Now picture this.

You lose your job on March 15th. You curtail the household budget severely but then appliances break down. On April 5th, you learn you…