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
749 Views
Slave-owning, mysoginist, wig-wearing members of the landed elite?
- 30/08/2012 07:51:33 PM
500 Views
No, never, not even briefly. 
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
507 Views
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
507 Views
What? Nooooo way
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
507 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
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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
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Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers?
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
517 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
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Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me.
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
539 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
539 Views
Funny, my reaction to sentences like those is nearly the opposite.
- 30/08/2012 08:11:34 PM
488 Views
Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections.
- 30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM
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You're projecting. *NM*
- 31/08/2012 12:48:12 AM
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I am aspiring.
- 31/08/2012 01:09:40 AM
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As a personal aside ...
- 31/08/2012 01:43:45 AM
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Like I say, maybe I invest too much in online posting.
- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
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- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
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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
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It does get repetitive too often.
- 31/08/2012 05:07:41 AM
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Doesn't really matter. You're gonna keep doing it.
- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
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- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
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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
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... and big government.
- 01/09/2012 01:54:20 PM
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I don't really buy that.....
- 01/09/2012 08:33:28 PM
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Hamilton loudly and often advocated a central bank, national debt and active federal government.
- 01/09/2012 08:41:50 PM
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I think the entire Age of Enlightenment is fascinating
- 31/08/2012 06:32:23 PM
463 Views
You realize you just made a great argument for intelligentsia rule, right?
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
555 Views
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
555 Views
I would want better intelligenstia first
- 01/09/2012 02:48:28 PM
609 Views
Ah, the old uneducated>miseducated argument.
- 01/09/2012 03:39:07 PM
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*wonders if we could test*
- 02/09/2012 02:45:10 PM
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no there is a better reason why it wouldn't work
- 02/09/2012 02:58:18 PM
590 Views
I listen to some of supposed intellectuals talk and I am unimpressed
- 02/09/2012 02:53:21 PM
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Being well read does not make one smart, but does facilitate it to a great degree.
- 02/09/2012 04:32:05 PM
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I like the Starship Trooper approach
- 02/09/2012 05:04:17 PM
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I run very hot and cold on that one.
- 02/09/2012 06:28:44 PM
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What was that again about "you have a right to your own opinion, not your own facts"?
- 03/09/2012 06:39:01 PM
591 Views
Ah, right; I had forgotten our previous discussion of conscriptions termination in the '90s and '00s
- 03/09/2012 06:48:28 PM
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If you worked with more engineers you might change your opinion on the science degree part
- 04/09/2012 03:00:16 PM
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Maybe; I would likely just conclude horse sense is uncommon everywhere, but less so in engineers.
- 05/09/2012 12:11:58 AM
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