Dante and civilisational decline. A dispatch on disillusionment in politics

Dante lived through a period of almost total social collapse.
Civil war and city-state terror, practiced by the church as much
as secular powers, drove him into exile for the last 20 years of
his life. For a while, he lost everything. But then, through the
trauma, he regained a ground and rediscovered the fullness of
life.

The Divine Comedy is the product of that transformation. The
journeys through hell, purgatory and paradise hold nothing back,
be that terrible tortures of extraordinary delights. He wrote for
himself, for his readers including us, but also as a warning to
his time and future times, such as our ours.

So what has Dante got to say to now? What does his analysis
illuminate? Much, I think, as I explore in this thought.

For more on Dante and my own book see -
https://www.markvernon.com/books/dantes-divine-comedy-book

My earlier thoughts on Plato, Aristotle and Jesus are at my
podcast, Talks and Thoughts.