Page 13 - Introducing The Gratitudes

“A sober examination of the manorial system of the eleventh to fifteenth centuries would suggest that the supposed illiterate, bonded peasants had more freedom, more riches and were more self- sufficient than the average wage slave of today.”
- Tom Hodgkinson, The Freedom Manifesto
unbelievable; nothing is predictable, and therefore, nothing comes as a particular surprise.
Not least because we mostly don’t know what to think or be- lieve or think because, terrible as it is to say, we haven’t been told - yet or ever- what to believe or think. Polititians no longer have any integrity, business leaders only worship the almighty buck, journalists have lost the ability to inform us,
clergy struggle themselves for clues to what
God wants of us, scientists couldn’t care
less, and each and every one of them wants
us to buy their hapless - and ultimately use-
less or pointless - notions, potions and de-
votions.
you must share.”
George Orwell was more than a little un-
fair to the average person in the Middle
Ages, in fact. In the belief system of the Middle Ages there existed an ordered, comprehensible world-view, beginning with the idea that all knowledge and goodness comes from God, that God was there for them and looked out for them. What the priests had to say about the world was derived from the logic of their theology.
“Of all the teachings we
receive this one is the
most important: nothing
belongs to you. Of what
there is, of what you take,
– Chief Dan George, My Heart Soars
INTRODUCING
THE GRATITUDES
Field Guides to Learning and Living Everyday Values
13