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
845 Views
Slave-owning, mysoginist, wig-wearing members of the landed elite?
- 30/08/2012 07:51:33 PM
586 Views
No, never, not even briefly. 
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
603 Views
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
603 Views
What? Nooooo way
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
606 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
606 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
539 Views
Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers?
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
641 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
641 Views
Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me.
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
626 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
626 Views
Funny, my reaction to sentences like those is nearly the opposite.
- 30/08/2012 08:11:34 PM
579 Views
Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections.
- 30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM
617 Views
You're projecting. *NM*
- 31/08/2012 12:48:12 AM
274 Views
I am aspiring.
- 31/08/2012 01:09:40 AM
731 Views
As a personal aside ...
- 31/08/2012 01:43:45 AM
660 Views
Like I say, maybe I invest too much in online posting.
- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
700 Views
- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
700 Views
Re:
- 31/08/2012 02:27:00 AM
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Re: Re:
- 31/08/2012 02:37:35 AM
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Well
- 31/08/2012 02:54:25 AM
693 Views
It does get repetitive too often.
- 31/08/2012 05:07:41 AM
693 Views
Doesn't really matter. You're gonna keep doing it.
- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
639 Views
- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
639 Views
I did. They smelled of mahogany and death. They looked scabby and skeletal.
- 31/08/2012 12:35:44 AM
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Don't forget Hamilton! The creator of the American economy..... *NM*
- 31/08/2012 05:19:50 AM
322 Views
... and big government.
- 01/09/2012 01:54:20 PM
520 Views
I don't really buy that.....
- 01/09/2012 08:33:28 PM
570 Views
Hamilton loudly and often advocated a central bank, national debt and active federal government.
- 01/09/2012 08:41:50 PM
766 Views
I think the entire Age of Enlightenment is fascinating
- 31/08/2012 06:32:23 PM
549 Views
You realize you just made a great argument for intelligentsia rule, right?
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
640 Views
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
640 Views
I would want better intelligenstia first
- 01/09/2012 02:48:28 PM
707 Views
Ah, the old uneducated>miseducated argument.
- 01/09/2012 03:39:07 PM
657 Views
*wonders if we could test*
- 02/09/2012 02:45:10 PM
543 Views
no there is a better reason why it wouldn't work
- 02/09/2012 02:58:18 PM
676 Views
I listen to some of supposed intellectuals talk and I am unimpressed
- 02/09/2012 02:53:21 PM
574 Views
Being well read does not make one smart, but does facilitate it to a great degree.
- 02/09/2012 04:32:05 PM
526 Views
I like the Starship Trooper approach
- 02/09/2012 05:04:17 PM
633 Views
I run very hot and cold on that one.
- 02/09/2012 06:28:44 PM
729 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
693 Views
Ah, right; I had forgotten our previous discussion of conscriptions termination in the '90s and '00s
- 03/09/2012 06:48:28 PM
625 Views
If you worked with more engineers you might change your opinion on the science degree part
- 04/09/2012 03:00:16 PM
571 Views
Maybe; I would likely just conclude horse sense is uncommon everywhere, but less so in engineers.
- 05/09/2012 12:11:58 AM
486 Views