Ben Franklin on Debating

Some words to live by…

During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the delegates strongly disagreed regarding whether representation in Congress for each state would be in proportion to population or equal for each state. The debate threatened to break up the convention, and our democratic system may have been lost before it even got started. Benjamin Franklin, ever the cool negotiator,  reasserted the rules he had written for his social networking group (yes, he was way ahead of his time in many ways!) years earlier. I think it’s a good way to conduct oneself in any type of negotiation or debate situation. He said:

“Declaration of a fixed opinion, and of determined resolution never to change it, neither enlighten nor convince us. Positiveness and warmth on one side naturally beget their like on the other.”