La Morte Nera

     The video in today's class was about the infamous pandemic, which is now referred to as "The Black Plague" or "The Black Death".  In the 14th century, Europe was a trading center, with people coming in frequent close contact with one another... northern Italy in particular.  Twenty million people are reported to have died from the plague, and undoubtedly many more than that had been affected by it.  The symptoms of the plague included dark spots appearing on the skin, inflamed sores on the neck or armpit area, coughing, vomiting, and fever.
     I must admit, the video itself seemed very realistic for some reason... for instance, when Florence was referenced, present-day footage of the city was used.  This set a very good, realistic scene for the information that followed.  Also, whenever the actors related information about the plague, they looked directly at the camera, which made it feel like they were speaking right to us; they were also dressed in the appropriate attire of the time period. Some of the scenes were a little graphic for my taste, and I had to turn my head away... the fact that I can be so thoroughly disgusted purely by sitting in a classroom centuries later watching this video gives me an idea of how awful it truly was.
     At first, I could not imagine how the plague could have been connected with the "moral decay" and ethnic and even family hatred that stemmed from it... However, we learned that in many instances, parents would not even aid their children in fear of catching the plague themselves.. physicians and priests would even shrink away from visiting people affected with the plague.  This created many divides and tensions between family members and among and between ethnic groups. This sense of betrayal also drove people to become outraged and become very violent.  The Flagellants, a group of people who marched around whipping themselves and others were very brutal... this was viewed as a "do it yourself" act of Catholicism, as it was similar to the Crucifixion scene.
     If a plague similar to the Black Plague were to happen in today's world, I honestly believe that it would have the opposite effect on people than the bubonic plague had on the 14th century Europeans.  I say this because I believe that people now also have a much different perception of the divine / God (generally speaking) than people did back then.  I would maintain that today, people tend to view the divine as a more accepting and less rigid, scary divinity.  Therefore, if people were to be concerned with the Apocalypse or with mass death, I could see them turning to God in repentance and thanksgiving for the time that they did share with their loved ones; I could see people turning more inwardly and evaluating themselves and their life... I feel that although organized religion (Christianity in particular) has become more relaxed in rules and structure, for the most part, people have kept a strong sense of spirituality.