I believe one additional comma early on could help with clarity. I enjoyed sorting out the writer's meaning and the absence of acronyms, emojis and references to drivel from social media. I appreciate a writer taking the time to chose words carefully. I prefer a world with room for more words with specific meanings that have not yet been deactivated by mass marketing.
This is not; however, to condone verbosity for its own sake. Ernest Hemingway's direct style of writing breathes life into Truth and Beauty as readily as Herman Melville's lavishly complex sentences.
Thank you so much for this opportunity to consider how much I miss having time to read, rather than skimming and scanning. I cannot pretend to be the first to theorize that the world would be much more pleasant if everyone utilized a vast vocabulary, whether while writing or reading.
Well said! Indeed, simplicity is a virtue not just in written expression but in all realms of aesthetics, culture, thought and craft. As Mencken wrote of Beethoven, "His most complicated structures retained the overwhelming clarity of the Parthenon." Which is not to say that simplicity equals ease or triviality. Quite the opposite; stripping down ideas to their bare essence, letting them stand on their own merits without florid undergirding is a core challenge to any creator in any domain. Indeed, this idea was so central to the cuisine of the great Paul Bocuse that on his printed menu he quoted from a Van Gogh letter to Gaugin: "Comme il est difficile d'être simple." As in cuisine, so in painting, authorship, architecture, fashion, music and design.
I think our robot assistants may be able to save the world after all. Inspired by the first comment, I ran it by Bard (sorry!). Here is what it tells us - like you I had NO IDEA of what it meant in its original form:
"In simpler terms, the sentence is saying that when people are disciplined, they often try to justify their actions by coming up with pseudo-scientific theories, superstitions, and classifications. This is an attempt to "normalize" their behavior and make it seem like it is the right thing to do.
However, this is often just a way of trying to cover up the guilt that people feel when they do something that they know is wrong. It is a way of trying to make themselves feel better about their actions, even though they know that they are not justified."
Explained to a 5 year old by ChatGPT: Sometimes, people try to control what others want or like by telling stories that aren't true or making things seem more important than they really are. They do this to make everyone behave in a certain way. But because they use stories that don't make sense, it's hard for them to make everything seem normal and logical
I believe one additional comma early on could help with clarity. I enjoyed sorting out the writer's meaning and the absence of acronyms, emojis and references to drivel from social media. I appreciate a writer taking the time to chose words carefully. I prefer a world with room for more words with specific meanings that have not yet been deactivated by mass marketing.
This is not; however, to condone verbosity for its own sake. Ernest Hemingway's direct style of writing breathes life into Truth and Beauty as readily as Herman Melville's lavishly complex sentences.
Thank you so much for this opportunity to consider how much I miss having time to read, rather than skimming and scanning. I cannot pretend to be the first to theorize that the world would be much more pleasant if everyone utilized a vast vocabulary, whether while writing or reading.
Well said! Indeed, simplicity is a virtue not just in written expression but in all realms of aesthetics, culture, thought and craft. As Mencken wrote of Beethoven, "His most complicated structures retained the overwhelming clarity of the Parthenon." Which is not to say that simplicity equals ease or triviality. Quite the opposite; stripping down ideas to their bare essence, letting them stand on their own merits without florid undergirding is a core challenge to any creator in any domain. Indeed, this idea was so central to the cuisine of the great Paul Bocuse that on his printed menu he quoted from a Van Gogh letter to Gaugin: "Comme il est difficile d'être simple." As in cuisine, so in painting, authorship, architecture, fashion, music and design.
I think our robot assistants may be able to save the world after all. Inspired by the first comment, I ran it by Bard (sorry!). Here is what it tells us - like you I had NO IDEA of what it meant in its original form:
"In simpler terms, the sentence is saying that when people are disciplined, they often try to justify their actions by coming up with pseudo-scientific theories, superstitions, and classifications. This is an attempt to "normalize" their behavior and make it seem like it is the right thing to do.
However, this is often just a way of trying to cover up the guilt that people feel when they do something that they know is wrong. It is a way of trying to make themselves feel better about their actions, even though they know that they are not justified."
Explained to a 5 year old by ChatGPT: Sometimes, people try to control what others want or like by telling stories that aren't true or making things seem more important than they really are. They do this to make everyone behave in a certain way. But because they use stories that don't make sense, it's hard for them to make everything seem normal and logical
Bad writing contest :D