Age of the founders

[Icymudpuppy]

I feel like I'm getting old already.

I'm 34.

In 1776 when Jefferson wrote the declaration of Independence, he was 33.
Madison was 25 and already president of the continental congress (equivalent of today's speaker of the house), John Jay was 31, Hamilton was 21, John Hancock was 39.

Of our founders, most were in their 30s when this nation was born.

Yet today, to get involved politically at a national level at that age you either have to be a statist bootlicker, or a sexy female.

It's depressing.

I admire RP his endurance to keep fighting the good fight for so long.

[Carehn]

Ya. but think about how much it would have sucked to go to the dentist back then. Don't give up just because you feel old. And remember. Don't trust anyone over third... forty.

[heavenlyboy34]

Yep. But the founding generation was building (almost) from scratch and didn't have so many generations of insanity to deal with. That generation was among the best educated and most mature in American history. They also inherited the best of English culture (some of the bad stuff too). It was not so long ago that education allowed people to do great things at young ages. The opening chapters of "An Underground History of American Education" go into this. The first 18 years of our lives are mostly wasted now. :(

[Marenco]

Yep. But the founding generation was building (almost) from scratch and didn't have so many generations of insanity to deal with. That generation was among the best educated and most mature in American history. They also inherited the best of English culture (some of the bad stuff too). It was not so long ago that education allowed people to do great things at young ages. The opening chapters of "An Underground History of American Education" go into this. The first 18 years of our lives are mostly wasted now. :(

Yes, it reminds what John Taylor Gatto wrote in his book 'Dumbing us down':


Only a few lifetimes ago things were very different in the United States. Originality and variety were common currency; our freedom from regimentation made us the miracle of the world; social-class boundaries were relatively easy to cross; our citizenry was marvelously confident, inventive and able to do much for themselves independently, and to think for themselves. We were something special, we Americans, all by ourselves, without government sticking its nose into and measuring every aspect of our lives, without institutions and social agencies telling us how to think and feel….[T]here are some studies that suggest literacy at the time of the American Revolution, at least for non-slaves on the Eastern seaboard, was close to total. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense sold 600,000 copies to a population of 3,000,000, 20 percent of whom were slaves and 50 percent indentured servants….

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/bookstore/dumbdnblum2.htm

[TheViper]

I feel like I'm getting old already.

I'm 34.

In 1776 when Jefferson wrote the declaration of Independence, he was 33.
Madison was 25 and already president of the continental congress (equivalent of today's speaker of the house), John Jay was 31, Hamilton was 21, John Hancock was 39.

Of our founders, most were in their 30s when this nation was born.

Yet today, to get involved politically at a national level at that age you either have to be a statist bootlicker, or a sexy female.

It's depressing.

I admire RP his endurance to keep fighting the good fight for so long.

I'm so used to seeing paintings of them in their older ages (or perhaps that's the wigs doing that) such that I never considered their actual ages at those points.

Does have a way of making you feel like a slouch. I'm 33 and certainly haven't written a DoI.