History Ended Five Years Ago

Even as the people who misled us about Covid-19 make embarrassing admissions, so much is unknown — putting a shadow on all history before it.

Share this story

A man in a surgical mask walks by an illuminated U.S. flag as the Covid outbreak continues in New York City, March 13, 2020.

Andrew Kelly/Reuters

The president was shot in 1963. People still want to know what happened, and Donald Trump is promising to release the last government documents about that time. Why don’t we want to know what is far more shrouded in mystery: What happened to us in 2020?

Certain four-digit combinations that make up a year seem to stamp themselves on my mind. In my medieval studies, I contemplated 1115, the year the founder of the Cistercians, Bernard, founded a new religious house, Clairvaux Abbey. I spent time meditating on how the reforms of Cluny two centuries earlier had remade religious life for capable and spiritually ambitious men like Bernard.

Michael Brendan Dougherty

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

Comments

Advertisement

Advertisement