/lit/ - Literature

>>19791810
I used to feel this way myself, but now I can relate more to the church fathers than the pagans. From our perspective it's easy to conflate the earlier achievements of Classical civilization with the period the early Christians were living through, but for them the reality on the ground was very different. It would be like comparing the progressive reforms of Victorian England to the "progressive" reforms of present day bongland, or the republican ideals of the American founding fathers to the current electoral practices of the USA.
When you live in a very corrupt and dying empire, it's only natural to revel in its decline. Imagine if, for example, some highly moralistic religious movement became powerful enough to take control of Anglosphere politics today. Imagine if they nationalized the banks, broke up the media, did away with the Washington Consensus, ended free trade, closed borders, outlawed identity politics, declared Antifa and LGBT terrorist organizations, revoked women's suffrage, and instituted a protectionist patriarchal theocracy.
Sure, the people who benefit from the current system would be upset, and ideological people would cry over the loss of their idols. Yes, there would also be some loss to GDP. We wouldn't have as many video games, plush toys and Star Wars figurines. For most people, however, it would represent a fresh start at civilization building. In 2000 years from now people would be living in luxury again and reading histories of our time. They would wonder why we gave up Western civilization so easily, not realizing how shit it actually was toward the end.