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.
Yes, there are quite a few specific formative events that made them what they seem to be, but you probably don't have to look so far these days to find similar people. Of course, you'd have to be open to seeing those words coming from some guy named Osama Muhammad, and mentioning Allah rather than "God."
People who are struggling are always the most likely to feel the need to burst out creatively and passionately, and to really put those urges down in any sort of elegant form. Of course, it helps that many of the FFs had money, time and education...
How I wish there was a founding father-type person running for election. What a world that would be.
This message last edited by nossy on 30/08/2012 at 11:37:02 PM
Anybody here ever studied the founding fathers of America?
- 30/08/2012 07:34:28 PM
752 Views
Slave-owning, mysoginist, wig-wearing members of the landed elite?
- 30/08/2012 07:51:33 PM
502 Views
No, never, not even briefly. 
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
508 Views
- 30/08/2012 07:57:39 PM
508 Views
What? Nooooo way
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
508 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:06:30 PM
508 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
459 Views
Did you just kinda compare yourself to the founding fathers?
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
519 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:08:40 PM
519 Views
Not positively, but I have often thought they were a bad influence on me. 
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
540 Views
- 30/08/2012 08:21:48 PM
540 Views
Funny, my reaction to sentences like those is nearly the opposite.
- 30/08/2012 08:11:34 PM
490 Views
Fair point; it is revealing that none of the Bill of Rights amendments have multiple sections.
- 30/08/2012 08:39:24 PM
525 Views
You're projecting. *NM*
- 31/08/2012 12:48:12 AM
235 Views
I am aspiring.
- 31/08/2012 01:09:40 AM
645 Views
As a personal aside ...
- 31/08/2012 01:43:45 AM
566 Views
Like I say, maybe I invest too much in online posting.
- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
620 Views
- 31/08/2012 02:02:58 AM
620 Views
Re:
- 31/08/2012 02:27:00 AM
594 Views
Re: Re:
- 31/08/2012 02:37:35 AM
599 Views
Well
- 31/08/2012 02:54:25 AM
598 Views
It does get repetitive too often.
- 31/08/2012 05:07:41 AM
601 Views
Doesn't really matter. You're gonna keep doing it. 
- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
556 Views
- 31/08/2012 05:16:23 AM
556 Views
I'm not so sure you're entirely right.
- 30/08/2012 11:06:39 PM
640 Views
I did. They smelled of mahogany and death. They looked scabby and skeletal.
- 31/08/2012 12:35:44 AM
537 Views
Don't forget Hamilton! The creator of the American economy..... *NM*
- 31/08/2012 05:19:50 AM
283 Views
... and big government.
- 01/09/2012 01:54:20 PM
430 Views
I don't really buy that.....
- 01/09/2012 08:33:28 PM
486 Views
Hamilton loudly and often advocated a central bank, national debt and active federal government.
- 01/09/2012 08:41:50 PM
671 Views
I think the entire Age of Enlightenment is fascinating
- 31/08/2012 06:32:23 PM
464 Views
You realize you just made a great argument for intelligentsia rule, right?
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
556 Views
- 01/09/2012 01:48:58 PM
556 Views
I would want better intelligenstia first
- 01/09/2012 02:48:28 PM
612 Views
Ah, the old uneducated>miseducated argument.
- 01/09/2012 03:39:07 PM
573 Views
*wonders if we could test*
- 02/09/2012 02:45:10 PM
440 Views
no there is a better reason why it wouldn't work
- 02/09/2012 02:58:18 PM
591 Views
I listen to some of supposed intellectuals talk and I am unimpressed
- 02/09/2012 02:53:21 PM
483 Views
Being well read does not make one smart, but does facilitate it to a great degree.
- 02/09/2012 04:32:05 PM
434 Views
I like the Starship Trooper approach
- 02/09/2012 05:04:17 PM
549 Views
I run very hot and cold on that one.
- 02/09/2012 06:28:44 PM
639 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
592 Views
Ah, right; I had forgotten our previous discussion of conscriptions termination in the '90s and '00s
- 03/09/2012 06:48:28 PM
529 Views
If you worked with more engineers you might change your opinion on the science degree part
- 04/09/2012 03:00:16 PM
483 Views
Maybe; I would likely just conclude horse sense is uncommon everywhere, but less so in engineers.
- 05/09/2012 12:11:58 AM
406 Views