Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me. 
Joel Send a noteboard - 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
Joel Send a noteboard - 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
The founding of America is simply my favorite time in history. I'm simply in awe of the men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, and, heck, even Thomas Paine. Their personal writings are mesmerizing. Nobody writes like that anymore. You could quote just about anything they wrote and apply it to an arguement about politics and blow people away. Their intellect is unmatched nowadays, sadly. Seriously, is there anybody out there right now writing such deep, meaningful things about life and liberty?
These people wrote a document that founded a country and is still, after 200+ years, almost unassailable. How incredibly amazing is that? And also sad, that we haven't managed to improve upon the foundation that was established so many years ago. This country is simply not what it was or how it was suppose to be. Still, for all the cracks in that foundation, it's still something special.
How I wish there was a founding father-type person running for election. What a world that would be.
People writing like that today would find their Wall of Text met by a Wall of TL;DR. Any sentence with more than two clauses is simply too complex for Short Attention Span Theater, as is any document with more than two paragraphs.
While I think you have part of a good point, the intimation and my mental picture totally cracked me up.
Tolkien probably played a role also, but brevity was seldom the hallmark of writing during and after the Enlightenment. There is such a thing as going too far, many matters are so trivial they do not require comprehensively covering every contingency and even where neither is true bad writing of any length remains bad writing. However, while I claim no more than superficial success, yes, I do try to emulate the same approach as they did.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
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LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
This message last edited by Joel on 31/08/2012 at 10:58:59 PM
Anybody here ever studied the founding fathers of America?
- 30/08/2012 07:34:28 PM
889 Views
Slave-owning, mysoginist, wig-wearing members of the landed elite?
- 30/08/2012 07:51:33 PM
624 Views
No, never, not even briefly. 
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
660 Views
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
660 Views
What? Nooooo way
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
647 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
647 Views
My US history class was an hour long and I always got distracted by a butterfly or something.
- 30/08/2012 08:50:39 PM
588 Views
Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers?
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
690 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
690 Views
Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me.
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
672 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
672 Views
Funny, my reaction to sentences like those is nearly the opposite.
- 30/08/2012 08:11:34 PM
617 Views
Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections.
- 30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM
675 Views
You're projecting. *NM*
- 31/08/2012 12:48:12 AM
290 Views
I am aspiring.
- 31/08/2012 01:09:40 AM
770 Views
As a personal aside ...
- 31/08/2012 01:43:45 AM
701 Views
Like I say, maybe I invest too much in online posting.
- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
748 Views
- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
748 Views
Re:
- 31/08/2012 02:27:00 AM
723 Views
Re: Re:
- 31/08/2012 02:37:35 AM
723 Views
Well
- 31/08/2012 02:54:25 AM
733 Views
It does get repetitive too often.
- 31/08/2012 05:07:41 AM
740 Views
Doesn't really matter. You're gonna keep doing it.
- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
680 Views
- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
680 Views
I did. They smelled of mahogany and death. They looked scabby and skeletal.
- 31/08/2012 12:35:44 AM
674 Views
Don't forget Hamilton! The creator of the American economy..... *NM*
- 31/08/2012 05:19:50 AM
338 Views
... and big government.
- 01/09/2012 01:54:20 PM
563 Views
I don't really buy that.....
- 01/09/2012 08:33:28 PM
613 Views
Hamilton loudly and often advocated a central bank, national debt and active federal government.
- 01/09/2012 08:41:50 PM
814 Views
I think the entire Age of Enlightenment is fascinating
- 31/08/2012 06:32:23 PM
586 Views
You realize you just made a great argument for intelligentsia rule, right?
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
687 Views
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
687 Views
I would want better intelligenstia first
- 01/09/2012 02:48:28 PM
757 Views
Ah, the old uneducated>miseducated argument.
- 01/09/2012 03:39:07 PM
704 Views
*wonders if we could test*
- 02/09/2012 02:45:10 PM
581 Views
no there is a better reason why it wouldn't work
- 02/09/2012 02:58:18 PM
715 Views
I listen to some of supposed intellectuals talk and I am unimpressed
- 02/09/2012 02:53:21 PM
615 Views
Being well read does not make one smart, but does facilitate it to a great degree.
- 02/09/2012 04:32:05 PM
564 Views
I like the Starship Trooper approach
- 02/09/2012 05:04:17 PM
681 Views
I run very hot and cold on that one.
- 02/09/2012 06:28:44 PM
776 Views
What was that again about "you have a right to your own opinion, not your own facts"?
- 03/09/2012 06:39:01 PM
737 Views
Ah, right; I had forgotten our previous discussion of conscriptions termination in the '90s and '00s
- 03/09/2012 06:48:28 PM
670 Views
If you worked with more engineers you might change your opinion on the science degree part
- 04/09/2012 03:00:16 PM
616 Views
Maybe; I would likely just conclude horse sense is uncommon everywhere, but less so in engineers.
- 05/09/2012 12:11:58 AM
532 Views