A little bit of eloquence

Long have I bemoaned the degenerecy into which conversational English has fallen.  Where is the eloquence; where is the variety?  I yearn for the days of vibrant diatribe.  The English language has thousands of words at our disposal, yet we use so few.*  A poignant illustration of the problem: last year I overheard a colleague say "OMG."  Now, this colleague has a MBA, so it's reasonable to assume there's a level of education there, yet (apparently) this person thought it totally acceptable to "text" out loud.  Is that how far we've fallen?  Are we no longer capable of flowery discourse; of adroit elocution?  I could take the standard position and blame TV, video games, or Tennessee public schools, but I'm going to take the high road and blame Bruce.**

Literature, sadly, is no different.  Today's works don't hold a candle to the creative musings of the past.  Consider several examples taken from recent readings:

Boring: "Stop this nonsense."
Interesting: "Have done with this rhapsody of impertinence." - The Castle of Otranto (1764)

Boring: "He started snoring loudly."
Interesting: "He began, in truth, to sound a nasal bugle of no ordinary calibre." - The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)

Boring: "His surname was Cruncher; his Christian name, Jerry."
Interesting: "His surname was Cruncher, and on the youthful occasion of his renouncing by proxy the works of darkness, in the easterly parish church of Houndsditch, he had received the added appellation of Jerry."- A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

See what I mean?  See?  We're so utterly lost in today's world.  What do we fear?  Why is it acceptable to say "sup" but somehow wrong to say "a very fine salutations to you, ho ho!"  It's as though pervasive use of multi-syllabic, interesting, and/or little-used words are counted as an unspoken detriment to our reputation.  Sheesh.  And they say we're getting better.  In 100 years we'll be grunting and pointing- if you don't believe me, listen in on two engineers talking some time.  The explosion of technology and communication methods has occurred, ironically, in conjunction with noticeable decrease in communication ability.  We now have more ways to talk, but fewer things to say- or, at least, fewer words to use during a typical verbal exchange.  Already I tire of my rant.  Peace out, fools.  Word up.

*probably- I'm too tired to research it.
**this one guy I work with.