thomas paine common sense

[e-bike-is-fun]

Read and listen.

Understand.

thomas paine common sense

 

[Nehmo]

Read and listen.

Understand.

thomas paine common sense

I recognize it was a influential work in early America, and I don't disparage it, but why are you recommending the book now? And as you are doing so, wouldn't it be courteous to provide a link to
Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America
By Thomas Paine.
Furthermore, if the book and author deserve praise, they might also deserve capitalization.

 

[Kin]

FIGHT THE MONARCHY!!!


No, but seriously, I guess posting this has a certain purpose. But obviously you realize that things can be interpreted to all different ends? Just because something has a very valuable message, doesn't mean that reading the document will give you a way to deal with that information. I think you have to add some commentary to your post, or something more, if you're going for something beyond "Hey! This would be good to read for a general historical well-rounded understanding." I assume you are going for some more modern statement.

 

[e-bike-is-fun]

FIGHT THE MONARCHY!!!
I assume you are going for some more modern statement.

Yes. You assume correctly.
It's just that I am just too stupid/ignorant to align thoughts of this magnitude to modern day.

 

[Dauntless]

When 'Common Sense' was written, it was very difficult to get any one in Philadelphia who would run the risk of printing it.

Today, I can't imagine anyone arguing with you if you said George W. Bush was a madman. Growing numbers agree the moment you say Obama is an ineffectual conman. But the rage you encountered if you pointed out that truth in 2000 or 2008, respectively.

Aligning thoughts of any magnitude to modern day is a useless endeavor. People don't want to embrace those thoughts any more than they want to be the one to bell the cat. CNN was just giving a breakdown on the Louisiana Presidential primary. A relatively poor. undereducated state, the demographics of those who voted skewed heavily toward the rich and all around elite. (As though Beverly Hills voted and South Central L.A. didn't.) Largely the rest stayed home. Could there BE a less productive activity than getting thoughts aligned on this?

Before there was Thomas Paine, there was Andrew Hamilton. The man who brought us Freedom of the Press AND started the ball rolling on the Mason Dixon line. The expression 'A Phildelphia Lawyer' meaning the best of attorneys refers to him. This is the man who went to a corrupt New York City under threat from Governor Cosby, argued the defense of a man ordered to be convicted and executed by Cosby for having printed the truth about the Governor in his newpaper, winning the acquittal by a jury that had been warned what would happen to them if they didn't convict. This is the man who said "And as we are denied the liberty of giving evidence to prove the truth of what we have published, I will beg leave to lay it down as a standing rule in such cases that the suppressing of evidence ought always to be taken for the strongest evidence; and I hope it will have that weight with you." (When you finish with 'Common Sense,' move on to the Zenger trial.)

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/zengerrecord.html

Wonderful as all that is, there's nothing to be gained by "Aligning" any of his thoughts. Far better to keep in mind the words and worlds of one known as George Eliot: "It's never too late to be the person you always wanted to be." George Eliot in fact was Mary Ann Evans, who always wanted to be a serious writer, NOT the author of light romances the female writers of her time were churning out. So she used a male pen name, NOT because she could not use her own name but because the male name assured that no false assumptions would be made about her work. (And maybe to help her remain relatively anonymous in the community where she had a long time affair with a married man.)

Let's not forget, in his lifetime one scathing biography was written of Thomas Paine, pretty much a work of fiction intended for a smear worthy of Fox News Channel. And with that it's time to quote Friedrich Nietzsche: ". . . .When you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you." If you want to do more than merely aligning your thoughts and instead be something meaningful, it won't be comfortable.