Gettysburg Address

[Econoline]

A very cool, very moving collaborative recitation:

[Lord Jim]

I saw this a few days ago...

I found it striking as well...

If only we could gain that sense of unity again...

[rubato]

Ah right, that sense of unity that animated Ford's theater and made reconstruction such a raving success?


Yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

LOL

Gee whiz, is it any wonder why he's such a beloved and well respected figure around here?

[MajGenl.Meade]

For those who still wonder who ate Benji:

[rubato]

Oh, you mean the sense of unity that ignorant modern people like to pretend existed back then? A complete fantasy of togetherness and brotherly love?


Like Ronald Reagan -the great delusional- saying "When I was a boy, we didn't have a race problem". LJs disconnection from reality has become total.


yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

Actually, what impressed and moved me about that video was the fact that right now, in the present, so many hopelessly politically divided individuals (did you watch the video? did you see the cast of characters in it??) could find one small thing--ten well-thought-out and perfectly crafted sentences, by a writer who obviously spent a lifetime formulating and distilling the thoughts in them--that they and we* can all still agree on.


ETA: *(except for rubato, of course)

[Lord Jim]

That's pretty much the way I saw the point being as well, Econo...

In fact I'm willing to bet that just about everyone here who isn't a completely clueless misanthropic imbecile got that point...

In fact if a person is so dense that they need to have that explained to them, they're probably too thick to understand the explanation as well...

But it was certainly nice of you to try...

[Big RR]

Well, to a certain extent I agree, but that was some odd collection of people. Taylor Swift? Usher? Conan? I don't know enough about any of them to even hazard a guess at their politics, nor do I really care. To me, adding those and others kind of blunted the point.

[rubato]

Actually, what impressed and moved me about that video was the fact that right now, in the present, so many hopelessly politically divided individuals (did you watch the video? did you see the cast of characters in it??) could find one small thing--ten well-thought-out and perfectly crafted sentences, by a writer who obviously spent a lifetime formulating and distilling the thoughts in them--that they and we* can all still agree on.


ETA: *(except for rubato, of course)

I saw the video and heard the recording. It did not happen 'back then' as was said. And a sense of unity between people self-selected to read the same text is not, I would think, worthy of comment.

I have also read Garry Wills' book-length essay on the Gettysburg address which I recommend to anyone with a sincere interest in the subject and the mental ability to read a whole entire book.





If you had an interest in the subject 20 years ago you would have already read it.


yrs
rubato

[Lord Jim]

is not, I would think, worthy of comment.

And yet that didn't stop you from taking time out from your busy schedule to make gratuitously nasty and insulting "comments"...

Howsabout next time you don't think something is worthy of comment, you, well, don't comment?

Sound like a plan?

[rubato]

So you now admit that there was no prior time when we had the unity you claimed?

That's progress. You've actually learned something.

So if you had said: "If only we could gain that sense of unity. " and left the "again" off it would work better.


yrs,
rubato

[Andrew D]

It seems to me that rubato has misread Lord Jim's first posting in this thread. I agree with Econoline's assessment: The "sense of unity" referred to is that displayed by the readers of the address in the linked video, not necessarily any such sense of unity among the address's original audience..

Also, rubato wrote:

Oh, you mean the sense of unity that ignorant modern people like to pretend existed back then?

and:

It did not happen 'back then' as was said.

(Emphasis added.)

But when I look for the phrase "back then," I find that it "was said" only in rubato's postings.

So it seems to me that in this particular dispute, Lord Jim holds the better position. (He didn't need to be so nasty about it, but that's a different issue.)