alt Hacker NewsIt was far worse in the past, for the reasons you mentioned about security in particular. This is when we see the rise of castles and fortresses and the feudal system.
The Nazi Reich was very short lived (12ish years) and after its collapse, Western Germany was in a better place. The collapse of the Soviet Union was a bigger deal, as people had lived a few generations under the communist system and had to adapt rather suddenly to market economics and new governance. No doubt there was a shock period, but by and large people's lives got better. This is largely because of how globalized we are in modern day.
The Dark Ages lasted for hundreds of years and were a regression in quality of life for vast majority of western europe.
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I believe a lot of historians get rather upset about the use of the term 'dark ages'.
The Romans used their professional army to destroy many of the cultures unfortunate enough to be within their reach (Dacia, Carthage etc). They then wrote the history to make themselves look good and the 'barbarians' look bad. Consequently the fall of the Roman empire is seen as a disaster. But the Romans were a brutal bunch. They used to watch people being mauled by wild animals and gladiators hacking each other to death as entertainment, after all. Many of the people that the Romans conquered must have been glad to see the back of them.
"Western Germany was in a better place."
Due to a somewhat historically anomalous generosity of the winners, who (from a mixture of humanity and economic motives) decided to invest into its rebuilding.
In earlier times, debellatio of an enemy state after a long, vicious existential war would end in a way similar to what the Romans did to Carthage.