FEUDALISM THEN AND NOW

Author: T. Tumanishvili

Translated by: A. Andersen

1. Social Stability as a Foundation for Growth

Feudalism provided a stable social structure. Everyone knew their place and their duties, which ensured a degree of safety and predictability. Against this background, artisans, merchants, and the clergy could cultivate their crafts, commerce, and spiritual life.

2. Economic Interdependence

Although peasants were dependent, they were also indispensable — their labor sustained the entire order. This gave them a certain influence within their communities, especially during times of labor shortages or war.

3. Pathways to Mobility

In the later stages of feudalism, mechanisms for movement between estates began to appear — through military or state service, the Church, trade, or craft. A peasant could become a prosperous burgher, and the son of a townsman might rise to nobility through education or loyal service.

4. Spiritual and Cultural Possibilities

The Church offered access to knowledge and influence based not on birth but on ability. For many, this was a genuine opportunity to transcend the circumstances of origin.

Thus, feudalism was not merely a system of oppression, but also a framework within which the first forms of social dynamism began to emerge.

Feudalism as a System of Opportunities

Feudalism is usually remembered as a symbol of stagnation and inequality — a world where one’s destiny was fixed at birth. Yet a deeper look reveals not only its restrictions but also the structural order that gave rise to the first stirrings of individual and social initiative.

Despite its rigidity, the feudal system possessed an inner coherence. Everyone knew their place, obligations, and rights. Within that stability lay a paradoxical kind of freedom: one could act confidently within a known and dependable world. Feudalism provided society with a foundation — a durable frame within which the space for growth began to appear.

For the lord, it meant power, protection, and patronage.

For the peasant, security and a guaranteed plot of land.

For the artisan, steady demand.

For the monk, a path to learning and authority.

Even within the hierarchy, there was room for movement: loyalty, skill, hard work, or sheer luck could lift a person above their station. Gradually and inexorably, feudalism produced the movement that led to the rise of towns, trade, education — and eventually, a new social order.

Feudalism was undoubtedly a system of inequality, but it was also through it that human beings first began to see themselves as actors within a structured world and to search for ways beyond it. Paradoxically, its greatest opportuniti

es were often granted not to those who already held power, but to those who dreamed of transcending their lot.

In feudal society, inequality was honest and visible — no one pretended that all were equal. Ranks, duties, and privileges were openly named and understood. Today, however, beneath the outward appearance of democracy, hierarchies are concealed beneath the mask of “equal opportunity,” and this very concealment carries a deeper cynicism.

Modern Inequality and Its Mask

Feudalism was frank. It did not promise equality or disguise authority in rhetoric. The peasant knew who owned the land and to whom he owed allegiance — and in that there was a certain clarity, even a kind of metaphysical simplicity.

The modern world, by contrast, speaks of freedom, equality, and open horizons — yet behind these words lies an invisible web of dependency: financial, informational, and social. People believe they are ascending the social ladder, unaware that the ladder itself is inclined at an angle favorable to a privileged few.

Feudalism kept a person at the bottom — but did not deceive them about where the bottom was.

The modern system promises height to all, yet turns most into perpetual climbers who never reach the summit.