Preoccupied?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Preoccupied?

1. Life expectancy is around forty. Infant morality is common and is experienced by every family. People are fully preoccupied with death.

The dominant theology rules that everyone from the time that they are born is damned to hell (pardon me) and needs to be saved through the Church. One who is not sufficiently pious may purchase salvation from the Church. This arrangement does not encourage the wealthy to lead noble lives.

The Church has fixed ideas about the world. They are based on the Aristotelian philosophy and rules of nature. The Earth is flat. Anyone who says to the contrary risks being burned at the stake. Scientific freedom and discovery are therefore non-existent. Knowledge is dangerous. New ideas are dangerous. Innovators are burned at the stake.

The mystics hold sway, in part because of the ignorance and in part out of necessity, as a form of escape. In the twentieth century, a person who claims that a snake spoke to him would wind up on a couch and be asked to talk about his childhood. During the Medieval years, the person’s neighbors would hold him in awe.

- Medieval European Life, JewishAmerica.com.

2. In the latest list of the world’s billionaires, published by Forbes, no fewer than six made their money from Facebook. As members of the world's richest club, the Facebook six have become an elite within the super-elite.

Top of the list is Mark Zuckerberg, the social networking site’s CEO and president, who helped to create it while at Harvard University. He ranks 52nd in the Forbes list, with a fortune estimated at $13.5bn.