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The preserved letters and exams of the 19th century are sometimes held as evidence of a mentally superior people, but these are a biased sample; the average person was ignorant. Nonetheless the letters themselves do show a superior literary style and erudition, adjusted for IQ
It is easy to say that TV and the Internet have made reading unappealing to the average person, but even our current intellectuals, people whose job it is to read, seem to know very little history and to write with the flair of someone who just finished a high school comp course.
Of all the generational differences in personality, the most striking is energy and extraversion: it’s sometimes stunning to read about the (voluntary) work output of men like Napoleon, Alexander Hamilton, or LBJ, men who worked and slept and did nothing else
As far as style, what watching old movies or listening to radio broadcasts make clear is that the people of the past were also much better speakers, conversationalists, and storytellers. They were overall more interested in language: debate, oratory, grammar.
Millennials have their diversions, but the main reason they are unsociable is that they are bad at socializing. The right wing can only be revived with new clubs and societies but these the raw social material is so low that such things are not enjoyable for the young.
Was reading the Australian outlaw Ned Kelley’s “manifesto” and it was pretty obvious he was not well educated and still a better writer than probably 85% of our contemporaries.
Singing is similar. The US national anthem was probably not considered extremely difficult to sing when it was composed! Same with old protestant church Hymnals. Modern congregations can't sing them. Too much range, to much complexity and rapid note shifts.
US national anthem being difficult was actually debated in its time, lots of people thought it was too hard for the average person to sing. Idk about Prot Church hymns though
Could this be because of letter writing? I imagine that people who wrote letters all the time developed their writing skills more than we do now.
Hemmingway happened. It became in vogue to write simply instead of florally. The problem with this is that it’s very difficult to write simply and purple prose is actually much easier.
Yeah that’s very true and many people discount that
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