Ben Franklin had his reasons...

[Lazylion]

I've been reading Ben Franklin's autobiography. About 1/5 of the way into it, I found this interesting quote:
"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do."
This was following a discussion about him eating fish after having been on a vegetarian diet ("...when [the fish] came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well" ). But it seems a bit more far-reaching than that...

Thoughts?

[HaMMerHeD]

It means humans are good at rationalizing things. Given the correct motivation, we can rationalize just about anything.

[ksandvik]

Originally Posted by HaMMerHeD

It means humans are good at rationalizing things. Given the correct motivation, we can rationalize just about anything.

...like purchasing more bass gear...

[colcifer]

Or erasing people's memories and reprogramming them with new identities so you can rent them out for large sums of cash to fund a global takeover by a guy you never met but you just know is really, really creepy.

[Lazylion]

Originally Posted by colcifer

Or erasing people's memories and reprogramming them... (snip)

LOL What's that, the new Matt Damon movie?

[colcifer]

The second Joss Whedon series FOX cancelled. At least they gave him a proper budget and aired the episodes in order that time. It's called Dollhouse if you want to watch it despite the massive spoiler I posted.

[steamthief]

I read Isaacson's biography of BF, a most excellent read. THE American renaissance man!

[OldDog52]

If the excellent "John Adams" miniseries is accurate, 'ol Ben Franklin was quite the colorful character.

[fdeck]

Franklin was being self-deprecating.

I read the biography by Isaacson over the Xmas holiday. It was quite enjoyable. It points out that Franklin's autobiography, while a good read, was somewhat self serving. On the whole I gained a great admiration for Franklin. Then my mom gave me a biography of John Adams, which I haven't gotten very far into yet.

[FF Petro]

Fdeck, are you reading the one by John Mcullough? I found it to be very informative but scatter-brained.

In general story about John Adams would cast an unfavorable light on Benjamin Franklin and vice versa. The two were not on good terms. They had two different cultural ideas for the nation. John was very British and Ben was very French.

[steamthief]

I read McCollough's Adams biography right after the Franklin book, and I found it very interesting to see events that shaped the nation looked at and interpreted from very different perspectives.

I like your comment on the cultural differences, it really showed in their personalities - Franklin the showman, Adams the grinder.

If you haven't read these presidential biographies, both Andrew Jackson and Harry Truman were excellent! I'm in the beginning stages of Theodore Roosevelt now.

[steamthief]

Originally Posted by OldDog52

If the excellent "John Adams" miniseries is accurate, 'ol Ben Franklin was quite the colorful character.

Apparently, he was the 18th Century equivalent of a rock star in France.

[ChiliPepper]

Originally Posted by steamthief

I read Isaacson's biography of BF, a most excellent read. THE American renaissance man!

Indeed !

Originally Posted by fdeck

Franklin was being self-deprecating.

I read the biography by Isaacson over the Xmas holiday. It was quite enjoyable. It points out that Franklin's autobiography, while a good read, was somewhat self serving. On the whole I gained a great admiration for Franklin.

+ 1

Franklin always tried to influence his public perception and his autobiography has to be seen in that context

[hbarcat]

I read The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin and thought it was fascinating.

It seems that Ben was good at rationalizing certain behaviors and was a believer in the idea that the end justifies the means. He frequently included false/shill stories in his newspapers and even created people and events out of thin air for the pupose of furthering a cause he supported.

[warnergt]

Originally Posted by colcifer

Or erasing people's memories...

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by hbarcat

I read The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin and thought it was fascinating.

It seems that Ben was good at rationalizing certain behaviors and was a believer in the idea that the end justifies the means. He frequently included false/shill stories in his newspapers and even created people and events out of thin air for the pupose of furthering a cause he supported.

Well, he was a Freemason after all.

[Lazylion]

LOL Will Smith and Ben Franklin in the same thread! I love TB!

[AnchorHoy]

Quite a remarkable man, by all accounts, and IMO the most fascinating of all the Founding Fathers since in many ways he was by far the most shrewd and yet open-minded of them all

Originally Posted by hbarcat

He frequently included false/shill stories in his newspapers and even created people and events out of thin air for the pupose of furthering a cause he supported.

True enough. He was also quite capable of using logic and factual information - or at the opposite extreme, emotional appeals - to the same end. While he certainly knew how to blur the line between straight reporting and varying degrees of fiction at times, he was also remarkably skilled at making a very sharp point in a thoroughly humorous way

For an excellent collection of the latter, try to find a copy of Fart Proudly. This small anthology of his *ahem* lesser-known (more like "too controversial for the average school board") works includes not only his underground classic "On Choosing a Mistress" but many other hilarious examples of his razor-sharp wit and IMHO wisdom