Yesterday, I met with Jennifer for what is the first of a once- or twice-per-month meeting to discuss those things the Founders had studied, to get inside their heads as much as is possible from this point nearly 235 years removed from theirs. She has sparked a curiosity on my part to go back and revisit many of the original works which I first read some 25 or 30 years ago.
In response to her post yesterday (which you should probably read, first; go ahead ... I'll wait), I wrote a long-ish answer, part of which I'll repost here:
What the much more slowly-paced 18th century Founders would think of our frenetic lifestyles and MTV video/e-mail/texting length attention spans is anybody's guess, but I think they would believe we're mad (mad, I tell you!).
Seriously, I believe that - upon comparing their times and pursuits with ours - they would decry the hours wasted in front of the TV/idiot box/boob tube/vast wasteland.
They would mourn the loss of time spent absorbing the classic writers, such as Jefferson mentions in your quotation, and wonder how it is that we learn anything at all. They would agree with Santayana that we, who have mostly failed to learn from the past, are doomed to repeat it. If there's any doubt about that last statement, watch the national news and then compare to the 1760-1775 events in our own nation's past. I firmly believe that if we had been paying attention - and if we had not been dumbed down by the Progressive takeover of the State-run educational systems (but that's another rant, for another time) - we'd have realized more quickly what the revisionists were doing, and put a halt to it MUCH sooner.
Those of the late 18th century would also, I believe, decry the loss of written communication to and from other individuals. No e-mail, no matter how eloquently or elegantly composed, can take the place of the same words painstakingly written on paper ... and passed from the writer's hand to that of the recipient.
The internet has become the medium of choice for rapid dissemination of news, and of course there's a need for e-mail; I'm no Luddite. Regardless, we've lost something when one's personal thoughts are represented by pixels composed of liquid crystals.
There are still good men - and I know you weren't saying otherwise. There will always be those who choose honor and integrity over the quick & easy way. Like President Kennedy speaking of the pursuit of an expedition to the moon, some of us will always choose to do some things precisely because they are hard ... and therefore the accomplishment of those hard things will have significance; it will mean something.
For my part, reading the papers will mean (in some cases) going back and re-reading things I read several decades ago. But that's okay. Some things are worth the expenditure of time to achieve. We may find, after a long time pursuing those things upon the Founders based their ideas, that we've become nothing more than tolerably-accomplished old fuddy-duddies. But I don't think that's what will happen here.
No good ideas about freedom, liberty and personal responsibility will ever be a waste of time or energy to consider, and to share.
As I said when we met [yesterday], in some cases I have forgotten the source(s) of some of my ideas and opinions. In many of those cases, the concepts have been honed and refined (at least, I hope so) over time as I've read other works on the same topics. But revisiting the original source is never a bad idea; it will be instructive, and may illuminate some ideas which have been only half- or poorly-remembered, and may have drifted, over time, from the original thought.
I only hope my energy and attention span can keep pace with her enthusiasm, vis-a-vis the thrill of discovery. I believe this is going to be fun.
4 comments:
1. On the pace of life - I would tend to agree, with the caveat that a great many people - if they read at all - read not the Classics but the cheap little novels Jefferson mentioned in that letter. It's just that the trash has long since mouldered into obscurity.
2. On the art of writing- I think that while the pen and paper method are sadly still falling into disuse, the wordcrafting part of it is enjoying a new renaissance. In three hundred years, there might be some giggling over icanhazcheeseburger, but for the most part I think they'll be looking at the very best essays pulled from a pool of hundreds of millions of connected individuals over the course of a couple decades and think... "goodness, they were smart people* in the late 20th/early 21st century.. why can't we be anything like that?" ...well, until they see the youTube comment log, that is. :p
3. It's not so much a goody goody! I get to wade through archaic language making references utterly foreign to me, I can't wait! so much as it is guldernit, people have been lying to me about these guys for I don't know how long. So what was it they actually said?
In the end, it comes to a crisis of trust. After seeing too many opinion makers say things that are not only demonstrably false, but that actively required conscious effort to lie about** - I don't trust any of 'em anymore. About anything.
So.... in order to see through a bunch of conniving 21st century politicians and opinion makers, we're reading a bunch of conniving 18th century politicians and opinion makers.
Lord have mercy.
:)
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* You know, considering they weren't augmented or anything yet... " :)
** The "racist white men with guns" shot MSNBC did was what finally put me over that particular edge, for what it's worth.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall....
I'd even audit for no credit.
and so i reiterate my thoughts of days ago that watching the show on john adams should be MANDATORY for all students and possibily all americans might be is should say probably...oh well the correlations between then and now stand out so much that those of us who paid attention would have said that you are right in your assumption that our founding fathers would not have waited so long....my loving wife made a comment about watching someone being tared and feathered during the show and rightly so.. that it was wrong ...however the alternative of hanging the fool for attacking a crowd of patriots...well it could have been done...in a similar conversation today with my son ...."sometimes simply because you can do a thing does not mean it SHOULD be done.." There are moral and reasonable things that we make judgements on every day...things such as tatoos...piercings, blasphemy, amongst others..come on people remember from whence we come our mothers and Fathers would not have put up with what we lamely sit and take in day to day...grow up america...stop the tom foolery...and rise up to stop the deliquent of obama...the king of england was mild in comparison....taxing tea...come on now lets tax everything...it seems the king has come back to haunt us..enough ranting for now i don't post i don't often even comment but myself like so much of this country is FED UP!
Dana
joated - We'd love to have you. :)
You could always follow along with the reading. I suspect Paul and I will both be posting our impressions. :)
Dana -
That scene bothered me to, so I went and spent a couple hours reading about tar and feathering. Seems depending on how hot the tar was, and how much of the body was covered... it could be anything from a painful, humiliating experience... to a grisly death sentence far more drawn out than hanging.
As shown in the John Adams film, I suspect such an attack could well have been fatal. The real event that scene was based on looks - while still brutal - less damaging than on screen. And arguably better justified.
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