Ouphilpo

As a society, the notion that rationality and empirical observations should serve as the criterion for measurement is not a necessarily inherent quality of society, but rather a learned standard of operation. Societies were able to last for long periods throughout history using faith as the criterion for truth, specifically God. These faith-based schemas for evaluation and judgment were used by nobility to justify their reign, used by the pious to exploit for wealth, and used by the knights to justify an ethnocentric war.
After the fall of the Roman Empire In 476, few institutions were left standing. However, the Roman-Catholic church was able to survive, becoming an unchallenged power organized in the very same as the political structures of the recently fallen Rome. The usurpation of power by the church kept the religious and political lives of the citizens active, a key component of governing a large amount of people. The church’s monopolization of power allowed the threat of excommunication to rise to the direst of all threats, as there was no state for one to fall back on once the church disavowed them.
Friedrich Nietzsche accurately describes the power game as such, “the judgment ‘good’ did not originate with those whom ‘goodness’ was shown! Rather it was ‘the good’ themselves, that is to say, the noble, the powerful, high-stationed and high-minded, who felt and established themselves and their actions as good, that is, of the first rank, in contradistinction to the low, low-minded, common and plebian” (Nietzsche 25). While the overarching globalization machine is not directly aimed at the manipulation of moral values, they definitely play a part in the societal thought and power shift. The church could not have risen to power without massive amounts of wealth, and at a time when society consists of a handful of affluent members and a majority of peasantry, those few with the money will have the loudest voice within the church. Kings would claim descent from the ‘family of the Kings,’ or the family of Jesus. By claiming divine right, the noblemen were able to use faith-based backing from the largest and most powerful institution in the European world, and to challenge the authority of the king would be the same as challenging God itself.
However, the clergymen were not totally dependent on donations, for they had their own fundraising scheme. By 1100 C.E. the Roman-Catholic church has reached an apex in their influential power. By once again exploiting the church’s massive influential power, the clergy convince their flock to purchase indulgences, or to essentially purchase a ticket redeeming the buyer from their sins. It was thought that the purchasing of a ticket and the enactment of a good deed would save a trip to purgatory. This practice would continue largely profitable and largely unquestioned until later in 1517 with the Protestant Reformation.
The power of the church was not only exploited in economical scenarios, but ethical ones as well. The knights’ policy of violent imperialism was justified under this same pattern of faith-based thinking. The knights, alongside the help of the church, created an image of themselves as a righteous crusader purging the world of demonic spawn, when hindsight shows them as ethnocentric ignoramuses. From 1300 to 1450 European nations set out to conquer the world in the name of their God (as their expeditions were largely funded by the still-powerful and affluent Roman-Catholic church). However, their crusades to bolster the legitimacy of Catholicism had largely the opposite effect, opening their eyes to new and better goods, industries, and ideas.
In 1517, shortly after the crusades ended, Martin Luther declared that salvation could come from faith alone, and that the buying of indulgences was immoral. One of the major acts of Martin Luther was his translation of the New Testament into German to allow the people to read the text for themselves. This sort of thinking, the free dissemination of information and ideas instead of being horded by the aristocracy for power and personal profit was directly a result of the wave of change looming on the horizon for the Western world.
One of these changes was the shift from the age of faith into the age of reason. With new sciences like astronomy and geometry introduced from the East, the West began to pay more attention to their rationality and their senses instead of simply believing through the clergy. This new movement was aptly named, The Enlightenment. As Standage puts it, “the empirical, skeptical approach adopted by scientists was applied to philosophy, politics, religion, and commerce” (Standage 134). Whereas we previously explored the globe, we now explore our intellects and push the boundaries of our mental capabilities. The earlier societies were intoxicated with faith, and The Enlightenment called on society to clear up and promote lucid and rational thought.
A key component and catalyst for this social change was coffee, the great soberer. Upon consumption, the drinker gains feelings of alertness and sobriety, which became largely favored over the previously favored distilled drinks, consumed for the end purpose of inebriation. “Those who drank coffee instead of alcohol began the day alert and stimulated…and the quality and quantity of their work improved” (Standage 135). This change in favored drinks, as Standage presents it, directly mirrors the social change in preference and judgment among the intellectual realm. “Coffee was the great soberer, the drink of clear-headedness, the epitome of modernity and progress—the ideal beverage, in short, for the Age of Reason” (Standage 136). Perhaps what was most important was not the production of the drink alone, as rum and whiskey’s production had spurred economical development within the American colonies, but the manner in which it was consumed. Much like the Greek symposia, coffee encouraged drinkers to gather into drinking groups, but instead of drunken debauchery or games, coffee allowed its drinkers to partake in intensive intellectual conversations, as there was no risk of intoxication with the newly praised drink. Also similar to the Greek symposia was the high caliber of thought taking place, with the coffeehouses home to some of the Western world’s greatest thinkers, like Galileo and Hooke. This practice of coffee houses began in the early 16th century in the Arab world, but was largely improved upon by the Western interpretations in terms of success of the individual coffee shops.
In fact, in Europe coffee houses became so popular that regular patrons were accused of wasting their time conversing rather than doing more important manual or physical (practical) labor. In 1675, British King Charles II outlawed the coffee houses, declaring they “have produced very evil and dangerous effects…for that in such Houses…divers False, Malitious, and Scandalous Reports are devised and spread abroad” (Standage 145).  Once again, as with prior to the crusades, we see those in power attempting to halt the spreading of information and knowledge in fear of an undermining of their authority. As observed by historian Jules Michelet, those “who assembled day after day in the Café de Procope saw, with penetrating glance, in the depths of their black drink, the illumination of the year of the [French] revolution” (Standage 170).  However, the coffee houses’ sheer popularity within the British people overrode any sort of legislation passed to hinder the coffee business—any laws enacted became unenforceable due to sheer large-scale disobedience of the legislation.
Prior to coffee and the Age of Reason, information and ideas were largely the responsibility of the church and nobility. Now, as a result of the conquests and crusades into the East, the Western world has branched out for better or worse into the global community through the adoption of Eastern ideas, namely coffee houses and the intellectual freedom within them. This practice continues into the modern era—not only the practice of drinking coffee but also the gathering of groups into these coffee houses for the discussion of intellectual matters. Paired with the freedom of speech amongst the members of the coffeehouses, coffee set the world stage for the notion of freedom of information and an increasingly culturally tolerant world.