scorning to be careful, shamefully prodigal as well as admirably efficient?

[NewHopeR]

Does "scorning to be careful, shamefully prodigal as well as admirably efficient" mean "scorning to be careful, scorning to be shamefully prodigal as well as scorning to be admirably efficient?"

Context:

We have squandered a great part of what we might have used, and have not stopped to
conserve the exceeding bounty of nature, without which our genius for enterprise would have been worthless and impotent, scorning to be
careful, shamefully prodigal as well as admirably efficient. We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but we have not hitherto
stopped thoughtfully enough to count the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical
and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the years
through.

 

[Tdol]

To me it means that we have scorned to be careful, have been shamefully prodigal but have also been admirably efficient (the admirable efficiencies will have been financial or other, rather than thinking about the human cost).

 

[Barb_D]

And to offer my unasked-for opinion, I think this writing style is crap. Why make the reader work that hard to understand your message? In speech, that layering of phrasing can be good rhetoric, but in writing, it's heavy lifting.

 

[BobK]

:up: What's worse is that it's intentional. He's showing off (that is, I get the impression it's a man writing).

b

PS The Text Analyser says

...
Hard Words: 16 (14.95%) [help-text]
Lexical Density: 67.29% [help-text]
Fog Index: 27.38 [help-text]

....

I didn't find the help text very helpful, but imagine I those numbers aren't good!

 

[Raymott]

What is the source, NewHopeR? (That is, who wrote it?)

 

[NewHopeR]

What is the source, NewHopeR? (That is, who wrote it?)

Woodrow Wilson

 

[Barb_D]

Well, perhaps he wrote it to be read out loud. It would work much better that way. Writing style was a lot more flowery 100 years ago.

If anyone had written this recently, with the intention of having it be read, and not spoken, my comment would stand.

I hope that he gave this in a speech and he didn't intend for his readers to wade through the thick prose.