My original (Contrarian) analysis of the bubonic plague

Why the Black Death was a necessary evil in order to move forward as a society..

Although I have an affinity for morbid history and was intrigued by the historical nature of the most deadly pandemic in world history, I will attempt to gracefully advocate the notion that the Plague was actually a catalyst that moved society forward. Perhaps I am desensitised to the haunted history of Eastern Europe, as well as 700 years removed from such a catastrophic pandemic. However, with that being said, I would argue that a global pandemic was necessary during this time in order to drive society forward in terms of advancement.

If it didn’t happen then, we would’ve remained complacent in arenas like medicine and social reform. We would still be hindered by ideologies like feudalism, classism, and serfdom, with seemingly no motivation to change them. So while I do understand that these atrocities were tragic and devastating for most of Europe, we needed a collective awakening to alter the systems in which we were a part. The plague ultimately forced people to reevaluate and reexamine every aspect of how a society functions and protects itself in the case of an emergency. Even if half of Europe was lost to this plague, it set both a dire and revolutionary precedent going forward, which drastically altered the state of the world. As someone who is pursuing a philosophy degree, the ethical implications of making this claim aren’t lost on me, but we would have never been forced to change and progress if it weren’t for loss in any form.

Success and stability inevitably breed stagnancy and complacency. While COVID was horrific in its own right, affecting millions, we needed a cultural reset for how we assigned value and meaning to things. It forced a level of contemplation in how we managed a work-life balance with remote and hybrid work becoming a new norm, as well as an emphasis on cutting-edge modes of digital integration. COVID also triggered rapid and unprecedented innovations in medicine. Pandemics, while unexpected, have a way of forcing a level of humility as it relates to our own mortality.

The disastrous nature of the bubonic plague is undeniable, but that kind of disaster was inevitable due to where society was. 14th-century Europe was unequipped to handle a plague of this magnitude due to how unrefined the society was, so they simply perished. The Bubonic Plague bacterium still exists today, and people are still infected and are immediately treated with antibiotics due to the advancement in medicine. We are a different society today, albeit 700 years later, but without consequences, would we have been inspired to change, or would this global outbreak have wreaked havoc on America in the 17th/18th/19th centuries instead?

Darwinism persists.