Impenetrable Mindlessness

I'm currently reading William Manchester's book about the Middle Ages called A World Lit Only by Fire. The very first paragraph has a wonderful sentence in which Manchester says that most of what is known about the Dark Ages (the early portion of the Middle Ages, from roughly A.D. 400 to A.D. 1000) is "unlovely."

He then goes on to describe the era as a time of "incessant warfare, corruption, lawlessness, obsession with strange myths, and an almost impenetrable mindlessness."

Thank heavens that's over!