I had to read these Findings from Harper’s at least twice:<\/p>\n
The Justinianic Plague may have had a more profound impact on Byzantine society than recent research has posited, as evidenced by the devaluation of currency and attempts to impose wage and price controls amid labor shortages and what the emperor described as the “encircling presence of death.”<\/em><\/p>\n I’d never heard of the Justinianic Plague.<\/a> But wait — doesn’t the whole paragraph sound like us? Right now?<\/p>\n Then this followed:<\/p>\n Liangzhu culture<\/a> was destroyed by climate change, volcanic eruptions made Chinese dynasties of the past two thousand years likelier to collapse, and the end-Permian mass extinction<\/a> may have been caused by southern Chinese volcanism in addition to the eruptions of the Siberian Traps<\/a>, which lowered global temperatures by several degrees.<\/em><\/p>\n Now this business about Liangzhu is what I’d<\/em> call cancel culture.<\/p>\n P.S. Just today, my cousin Bob and I were exchanging emails about Dustcatcher, a big floppy stuffed toy dog my sister had in the 1950s. We were proud that we remembered that far back. But the end-Permian mass extinction? The Siberian Traps?<\/p>\n Do not recall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had to read these Findings from Harper’s at least twice: The Justinianic Plague may have had a more profound impact on Byzantine society than recent research has posited, as evidenced by the devaluation of currency and attempts to impose … Continue reading