In his famous Autobiography, Ben Franklin proffers thirteen virtues as being ‘necessary or desirable.’ Necessary or desirable toward what, Franklin does not explicitly tell us. With Industry and Frugality leading the pack, however, and Order and Resolution in lockstep close behind, one can fairly infer what Franklin had in mind: If we want to be materially successful in this world, we had better comport ourselves in accordance with his thirteen proffered virtues. In other words, we had better tend to business.

But what about non-material success? What about succeeding as a good citizen, a good spouse, a good parent, a good friend, a good neighbor? Strikingly, Franklin makes no mention of this kind of success in his Autobiography, and little mention elsewhere. As a result, for over two centuries now, Franklin’s thirteen material/mercantile virtues, and the kind of success they foster, have pretty much held sway over shaping the values and aspirations of the average American.

This lecture traces many of America’s ills today to a structural imbalance between the influence of Franklin’s material virtues (Industry, Frugality, Order, Resolution, et al.), and the influence of their relational counterparts (Empathy, Compassion, Sacrifice, Generosity, et al), in shaping the American character. Drawing on examples from both Poor Richard’s Lament and modern life, this lecture suggests what we must do, individually and collectively, to bring the I-focused and the other-focused aspects of our lives into balance before it should become too late to do so.”

2. "Pater! Pater!"

Ben Franklin was exemplary in many ways, including as citizen and statesman, but not, unfortunately, as father and husband. Some of his behavior toward his own family was, in fact, nothing short of shocking. The man could be demeaning, cruel, even vicious to those who most loved him. And even though this truth about Franklin is little known (guess why), we don’t really have to try very hard to believe it, do we. In fact, if we were to take inventory of all the exemplary fathers we have known, experienced, or heard about in our lives, our list wouldn’t exactly run on for pages and pages, would it?

Why is this the case for so many of us? What’s going on here?

Drawing from Ben Franklin’s own dismal record as a father, this lecture explores the state of fatherhood in America today, attempts to uncover some of the major reasons for its consistent failure, discusses the likely consequences of what is rapidly becoming a fatherless world, and offers at least a ray of hope.

3. Oh, where have all the leaders gone...?

In Poor Richard’s Lament, Ben Franklin crashes a leadership conference at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and delivers a homily on leadership. At the heart of Ben’s remarks is a parable about a cosmic traveler who is engaged in a desperate search for a true leader to save his world. In weaving his tale, Franklin draws a sharp contrast between the egocentric leadership that most of us have become used (inured) to and the enlightened (self-sacrificial) leadership that could solve most, if not all of the world’s major problems, if only we were to allow it to.

This lecture examines the nature of true leadership, speaks to the criticality of this kind of leadership in a complex world, and offers fundamental reasons why we are not likely to get true leadership until such time that we demand it, not so much of others as of ourselves.

4. Who will cut down the last tree? Will it be thee?

Someone cut down the last tree on Easter Island and in doing so, whether mindfully or not, sealed the fate of humankind on that world-in-miniature for all time. By extrapolating this event, one can reasonably argue that unless something fundamental changes in the way humans operate in the world—regard the world—someone will cut down, whether mindfully or not, the last tree on the planet.

This lecture asks if human beings are too innately selfish and myopic to survive as a species, and postulates specific measures we humans would need to take in order to preserve a human presence on Earth into the next millennium.

5. What if only women could vote?

In Ben Franklin’s time, the Wyandot Indians of Quebec (at the time) allowed only men to serve as chief and only women to choose the man for the job.

Despite Franklin’s famous trek to Quebec in 1776, there is no evidence that America’s most forward-looking founding father came into contact with the Wyandot, or otherwise became acquainted with their unique system of governance. Even so, given Franklin’s deep respect for women, it is at least interesting to speculate as to what might have happened had Franklin known of the Wyandot’s gender-balanced system of governance previous to participating in the discourse that led up to the drafting of the American Constitution.

This lecture examines the fundamental nature of human maleness (characterized by the ‘war gene’) and the fundamental nature of human femaleness (characterized by the ‘mom gene’), and speculates on what America might look like today (what the world might look like today) had Ben Franklin learned a thing or two from the women of the Wyandot back in 1776.

6. Time to say good-bye?

What right did George III have to prevent the American colonies from breaking away from the Empire in 1776? Was it the same right Mr. Lincoln had to prevent the South from breaking away from the Union in 1860?

This lecture speculates on whether the Northern and Southern States might have been better off today had they peaceably gone their separate ways back in 1860, or even earlier, at the time of the framing of the Constitution, when the infamous 3/5’s Compromise was rationalized as the glue that would hold the Union together into perpetuity.

This lecture identifies the deep divisions that exist today between roughly the same demographics of 150 years ago (Red States and Blue States versus North and South) – over such issues as abortion, creationism, federalism, climate change, environmental preservation, gay marriage, euthanasia, social safety nets, separation of church and state, and American Exceptionalism—and asks if it might be time for America to consider sundering the Union into sovereign entities of the like-minded.

7. Hope springs eternal, except when it doesn’t

In Poor Richard’s Lament, Ben Franklin visits an inner-city school where, mistaken for an expected substitute teacher, he ends up offering to a group of inner-city teenagers a possible way out of the hopelessness and despair that would seem to be their lot. Ben begins his remarks by drawing two trees on a whiteboard: a stunted, misshapen rendering standing atop a windswept knoll; and a robust, even-branched rendering standing beside a languid stream in a verdant valley.

This lecture assumes as premise that hope is sometimes what one derives from one’s good fortune of birth (being born into a white middle-class family, for example), and is other times

what one derives from the “good fortune” one creates of his/her own will and wits. ?is lecture offers three powerful tools that even the most despairing can use to create a reason to hope.

8. The Art of Virtue: The rest of the story

Ben Franklin promised Lord Kames, a Scottish friend, that he would leave behind a moral discourse to be titled The Art of Virtue. Ben did not deliver on his promise (although some people regard his Autobiography as at least a partial fulfillment of this promise). In any event, near the end of Poor Richard’s Lament, Ben finally writes his Art of Virtue (subtitled Two Loaves for Thee). He begins:

In Poor Richard’s Lament, the reader sees only 13 of the 52 verses in The Art of Virtue. This lecture provides the rest.

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