Thread: The Golden Age?

Was there ever such a thing as a Golden Age? I've always been fascinated by this quote from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman Empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom.

This was the golden age of the Antonines and it covers the period 96 - 180 CE. If this is to be believed then when absolute power, guidance and wisdom are found together, then there lies the secret.
But let's not forget that ancient Rome was filled with hovels, slaves, and prostitutes. It was also a place of paedophilia.
Then there were the awesome Greeks with their Arcadia, a magical if imaginary land of milk and honey. But let's not forget that Greece was a land of feuding states.
If you believe the movies, then the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 of England was a golden age in the 16th century. She held back the Spanish and the Scots, but she had to deal with an abundance of other problems.
In France there were the years following the French Revolution until the fall of Napoleon.
It's been suggested that in Britain the second half of the 20th century was a golden age of relative peace and exponential wealth. Consumerism and the rise of youth as a cultural force meant that it became the New Jerusalem and London the New Babylon from the late 1950's onward to the eventual crash of the financial markets in the 1990's.
In America there was rampant consumerism and the Reagan years of the 1980's.
But really, wasn't this all a heap of nostalgia? And didn't the second half the 20th century with its asset stripping of the world and irreversible global warming just store up huge problems for the future?

Originally Posted by ox

Was there ever such a thing as a Golden Age?

I think there has always been a Golden Age; it has nearly always been between 50 and 100 years ago. Or occasionally 50 years in the future.

Every culture has its own golden age. Its impossible for all of the world to have a golden age at one time. Cause then at who's expense would the golden age be founded upon? All those cultures reached their golden age by repressing other parts of the world. Maybe if we weren't human it would be possible for a universal golden age. But fat chance of that ever happening.

It is just a definition to show that at that time that particular country and/or culture was succesful in it's goals, gained lots of power and wealth.

You have Golden Ages in Art too.

Perhaps in a few hunderd years they may consider these last 150 years The Golden Age of Science, Logic and Reason,... provided we are succesful in maintaining the momentum and do not get destroyed by religious superstition and whatever more....

A brain spurt that last one.

Originally Posted by Strange

Originally Posted by ox

Was there ever such a thing as a Golden Age?

I think there has always been a Golden Age; it has nearly always been between 50 and 100 years ago. Or occasionally 50 years in the future.

every empire 1 golden age... thus about 10 golden ages in total...

Originally Posted by Estheria Quintessimo

It is just a definition to show that at that time that particular country and/or culture was succesful in it's goals, gained lots of power and wealth.

You have Golden Ages in Art too.

Perhaps in a few hunderd years they may consider these last 150 years The Golden Age of Science, Logic and Reason,... provided we are succesful in maintaining the momentum and do not get destroyed by religious superstition and whatever more....

A brain spurt that last one.

logic and reason was much greater back in medetirians

civilizations are meant to be rot and decay in due time, as matter. every radioactive element has half life.

Originally Posted by sir ir r aj

civilizations are meant to be rot and decay in due time, as matter. every radioactive element has half life.

Besides the fact I find it odd to compare human civilizations with heavy metals.... I do disagree.

Sure,... as far as we know from known and written history,... all what we consider cultures or civilizations of the past, have disappeared.

But have they?

Would you not agree that some civilization have simply transformed into other civilisations?
A civilization is just a marker, a word, a fixed set of specific feautures we contribute to such a culture in history. Beyond such a fixed set of features that civilization does not seize to exist. The people that made up that culture cq civilization still had children.

The Inca and Aztec civilization did not suddenly disappear. Eventhough disease whiped out a horrible ammount of the populus ,... some of these people still lived beyond the downfall of their civilization. And though we may not find their specific traits important enough for it to cultivate it in a grand civilization or culture,... alot of aspects of that former civilization/culture still survives in the children of the former glory. Mixed with the European culture,... a new culture,... smaller, not so grand (if grand is a trait you can undiscriminatly put on other peoples culture without shame),... but still a culture... and the heir of the might of culture past.