Civility? We could learn a lesson or two from George Washington

It seems I’m up to my neck in civility these days. First, last month I packaged and published a new little paperback/ebook called CIVILITY IN AMERICA for The Dilenschneider Group. It features essays from various ‘thought leaders’ like Charles Osgood, Philip K. Howard, John Brademas, and Steve Forbes.

Then I read and loved Amor Towles’s RULES OF CIVILITY (as reviewed in last week’s post). The name of that book derives from a gentleman character’s surprising reliance on a tract transcribed by a teen-aged George Washington (yes, that GW) called the Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation. No doubt it has survived all these centuries by dint of who the young author was.

Towles’s book ends with the list of all 110 rules, and they are quite a read. Some are hilarious, such as “Kill no Vermin as Fleas, lice ticks etc in the Sight of Others”; others, including #110 (“Labour to keep alive in your Breast that Little Spark of Celestial fire Called Conscience.”), are just plain nice. Here is a link to the full list.

For all those calling out for a more civil society in our rather uncouth time, they could do worse than reading GW’s prescriptions for decent behavior and success. Obviously George’s time had its share of problems, too!