The Middle Ages Are Making a Political Comeback

What are the odds of survival when political leaders with nuclear weapons 'go mediaeval'?

- Adrian Wooldridge

In one of the most memorable scenes in Pulp Fiction, a film replete with memorable scenes, a Los Angeles gangster, Marsellus Wallace, turns the tables on a man who has kidnapped and abused him. He's going to get a couple of friends to go to work on his assailant "with a pair of pliers and a blow torch", he says, and ensure that he spends "the rest of his short life in agonizing pain". In short, he's going to "get mediaeval" on him.

There has been an awful lot of "getting mediaeval" in the world recently. The "12-day war" between Israel and Iran was all about the most modern weapons of mass destruction humanity has devised. Yet it was frequently discussed in a language that is more resonant of the Middle Ages than the scientific laboratory.

Consider US President Donald Trump's "rage tweet" in reply to Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ("stupid AOC") and her suggestion that the President should be impeached for authorizing the bombing of Iran without congressional approval. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar gets called "the mouse". Former US president Joe Biden is "Sleepy Joe". Senator Chuck Schumer is "Cryin' Chuck" or "Our Great Palestinian Senator".