Life has a way with endless random collisions to occassionally produce a juxtaposition that is so uncanny it seems cosmically intended. At the very least, it arrests our attention and we draw relevant conclusions from the coincidence.
While reading Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, and contemplating his List of Virtues, I found myself most interested in “Industry” and “Silence.” Franklin urged that we “Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions” and that we “Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”
In an instant I distilled his call for meaningful action into rock lyrics as I thought of the Elvis Presley song “A Little Less Conversation (a little more action, please).” It occured to me that, in many ways, we don’t change that much; the same axioms apply today that inspired us over 200 years ago, we just alter the words a little.
This is where the Life/Collision/Cosmic-thing happened. A few minutes later I got into my car, turned on the radio, and what do you suppose was playing?
“A little less conversation, a little more action, please…all this aggravation ain’t satisfactionin’ me…”
Thank you, King of Rock and Roll. And that got me to thinking about another king…
240 years ago we paid taxes to King George without
representation and that sparked a revolution; forging our sovereignty from the Foundry of Freedom. Inspired men and women faced the proposition of maintaining the status quo or execution for treason; risking uncharted waters to create a new nation as their consolation.
This created some hostile discourse among our forebears. I’m a junkie for American history and I am as seduced as anyone by the noble highlights of that history, but I always find myself surprised by familiar realities illustrated by those writing in their time. The trials and tribulations of today’s political rhetoric often echo realities from the time of our founding.
Look at this passage from Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography:
“In the conduct of my newspaper (Poor Richard’s Almanac) I carefully excluded all libeling and personal abuse, which is of late years become so disgraceful to our country.”
Say what?
Franklin wrote of the growing animosity and “false accusations” toward each other, government and “our best national allies.” 
It turns out our founding heroes weren’t just colonial-philosophers dressed in tights with ruffled shirts and powdered wigs, pontificating on the virtues of being learn-ed and penny-wise, they, too, argued in the town square with growing malice.
The difference between the discourse of 200 years ago and today seems to be defined only by modern myriad sources to voice the same “scurrilous reflections.”
Modern media (television, radio, print, the internet) has, without question, amped up the volume of our differences, and has turned information (and disinformation) that once took days, even months to spread, into milliseconds. But, the hostility of the rhetoric is, perhaps, unchanged.
A glance into history can allow us to pause, take a breath, and dismiss a lot of the noise (and fake news) that assaults us. We can be optimistic about the future if we hold ourselves, and our sources of information, accountible. As Elvis pleaded in more recent history: “All this aggravation ain’t satisfactionin’ me.”
What we can do together is have a little less conversation embedded with “false
accusations” to divide us, and use a little more action to connect us with our common goals. Let’s put some music behind Franklin: “Lose no time; be always employed in something useful…Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”
(Try curling your lip, and moving your hip, when you sing it)
