Thursday, April 15, 2010

How was the Medieval concept of power and equality different from our contemporary concept?


The Medieval concept of power and equality was extremely different from our concept of power and equality now. They had a higher class which were the kings and the lords and the richer people. These people were worth more money and they were treated much more fairly. They thought of them as much better people. The lower class were the peasants and the slaves. They were worth a lot less money and were treated terribly. People didn't think of them as being as important as the upper class people. In our concept today we think of every one as equal no matter how rich or poor you are. Of course there is still racism and some equality problems, but for the most part people think of everyone as equal.
In the medieval times you were just born into your class. So if you were born into a family that was rich and noble and in the upper class, that is where you would be for the rest of your life. You would not move down to the lower class. Unfortunately for the people that were born into a family of slaves or peasants that were poor and in the lower class, they would stay their for the rest of their life. No matter what they did they would not be able to move up to the upper class. In our world today we are not born into a specific class. If we are born into a family that is poor we can grow up and get a good job and eventually become rich. If we really tried we could even become president even if we were born poor. In the same way, if we are born rich we can then not get a good job and end up being so poor we have to live on the streets. We think of equality in a much better way today then they did in the medieval times.

sources:
"THE MIDDLE AGES: THE FEUDAL SYSTEM." Oracle ThinkQuest Library. Web. 15 Apr. 2010. http://library.thinkquest.org/10949/fief/medfeudal.html

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