Tavis Smiley’s Grandma Said Something Worth Acting on — “Get in the Way!” — and My Comment on the Unspoken Luggage Required to Make Meaningful Use of Even Wisely Chosen Aphorisms

© 2012 Peter Free

 

13 September 2012

 

 

Experienced elders can provide bits of wisdom to build meaning-filled lives on

 

Tavis Smiley (of the Public Broadcasting System) wrote recently:

 

My grandmother used to always encourage me to "get in the way." That was her way of telling me that well behaved folk rarely get things done. Especially when it comes to challenging the political power structure.

 

Sure, there is a price to pay for trying to tell the truth, but isn't there an even higher price to pay for living a lie?

 

In this election season, how many of us are living a lie by remaining silent and static about things that should matter -- practicing a politics of convenience and cowardice, rather than a politics of courage and conviction?

 

© 2012 Tavis Smiley, Get in the Way!, Huffington Post (22 August 2012)

 

 

Properly implementing this advice, of course, takes some thought — which indicates just how much unspoken luggage goes with any useful aphorism

 

Getting in the way is only useful under circumstances in which attention-drawing, or events-shaping action, are ethically justified.

 

At least for morally attuned people, Grandma’s advice has to be judiciously implemented.  This requires a sense of real world moral workability.

 

Making a situation worse over the long term is probably not a good idea.  Yesterday, I expressed reservations about the worth of free speech under at least some kinds of volatile circumstances.

 

 

On the other hand, dithering under the onslaught of moral complexity does no one any good, either

 

Which is why great souls are so visible, when the manifest.  They are doing what the rest of us are not visionary, gifted or courageous enough to do.

 

 

The moral? — On balance, Grandma “get in the way” statement motivates us to leave inertial comfort for the dynamic discomfort that genuinely ethical behavior often requires

 

Apathy and inertia are Life’s most significant accomplices to evil.

 

“Get in the way!” reminds us that most human endeavors are morally less than they could, or should, be.