COMMON SENSE WHAT HAPPENED?
Back in 1776, Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense.
I’ve just re-read it — the last time was in the early 1960s, when my history teacher (a republican, anti-monarchist socialist, and war veteran) insisted Paine was one of the greatest people who ever lived.
For us, raised on pink-splashed maps of empire, hymn sheets of “God on England’s side,” and school drills to make us fit enough for the next war, that was radical stuff.
But Paine — a corset maker from Norfolk — helped fuel the propaganda that carried the American Revolution to success.
He believed in reason, free thought, and the right of people to overthrow their government.
He rejected institutional religion.
He was no saint, but his words mattered.
John Adams himself admitted:
“Without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain.”
And yet Paine died ostracised.
Only six people attended his funeral.
A life of radical clarity, dismissed by the country he helped found.
I wonder how his views would fare in today’s America.
His deism alone would send evangelical leaders into fits of righteous fury.
His insistence that people can and should depose failing governments?
You can imagine the headlines on Fox or GB News.
The irony is clear:
Common Sense in its broadest sense was never more necessary — and never scarcer.
Leave a comment