"Common Sense"

[Mr. Lothario]

    So I've begun reading Thomas Paine's Common Sense, and it's bloody amazing. Thomas Paine was almost singlehandedly responsible for creating popular support for the American Revolution. In a very real way, he brought the revolution about. Common Sense was the pamphlet that accomplished that feat. By writing The Crisis papers, Paine also (again singlehandedly) kept Washington's army largely intact even when it looked like his troops would go home when their hitches were up.

    In light of the recent political discussions on this board, and America's recently-heightened sense of the world political situation, several passages really struck a chord with me.

    "...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom." I really, really like that.

    The opening passage of the pamphlet: "Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other createst distinctions. The first is a patron, the last is a punisher.
    Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expence and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others."

    I find myself really liking Mr. Paine.

[Bondo]

Paine is boring.  I prefer the writing of Thomas Hobbes.

[Mr. Lothario]

    You know, I haven't read Hobbes yet. I shall have to do so. Where's a good place to start on his writings?

    I don't find Paine boring, though. Certainly not in comparison with most of his contemporaries, at any rate. He's positively modern in his turns of phrase and his style in general.

[Bondo]

Well, his most famous work is Leviathan, but try to find some of his stuff on Contractarianism as well.

[Mr. Lothario]

    I shall. Thanks. : )

[Grifter]

Pain's stuff does read a bit like a newspaper... but his messages are clear and resounding...

I agree Loth... good stuff.... truths that stand the test of time.

[theN00b]

Hobbes is more exciting but I really do like Paine's messages more.

[†FiRE Infection]

Weren't his writings ment to scare people  into it by using threats of God and stuff or am I thinking about someone else?

[|MP|Nomad]

I prefer a good copy of BIGGIN'S myself.  It is quite tittilating, and the author is also very astute to the readers desires and requests.  I recommend going to yer closest 7-11 and purchasing a copy, it does wonders to your imagination in times of stress and dissmay.  

[Mr. Lothario]

    Actually, Paine was like many of the Founding Fathers, in that he believed in the God of the Bible, but not in the divinity of Jesus Christ. He quotes scripture in Common Sense, but his style is not fire-and-brimstone. It's scarcely an argument based in religion. Good stuff.

[Grifter]

I just wanted to share with you guys the most stirring thing that I ever heard (and many many agree with me... but some of you may have never seen it)

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

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[Brain]

henry the the fifth, grifter?  

[Mr. Lothario]

    Damn, Willy was good. Thanks for posting that, Grift. I've heard it read (in the movie Renaissance Man), but never had the chance to read it.

[Grifter]

Yes Brain, King Henry V.

Loth, if you really want to get the willies... (pun intended)...  then rent Henry V.  When Richard Branagh is giving the St. Crispin's Day Speech.. it's freaking chilling.  He's even drooling while giving it.

[Bondo]

Kenneth Branagh perhaps?  Or does he have a father who did Shakespeare films as well?

I like his Hamlet very well and also his Much Ado About Nothing which had a spectacular cast (Denzel Washington and *cough* Keanu Reeves among others).

I actually think the Baz Lurhman Romeo and Juliet was very well done, even if it had some new stylings and Leonardo DiCaprio.

[Grifter]

Yep, my bad... Kenneth... I must have been thinking about Richard Burton or something when I wrote that... but Kenneth Branagh was the man.

And I agree... liked him in everything I've seen him in.  Wasn't in he in the Othello as well that Lawernce Fisburn was in?

I never botherd to see that version of R&J... Lionardo scared me off..

[Bondo]

Didn't see Othello (did see that piece of shit "O").  Romeo and Juliet does a much better job because it keeps the original language (you just can't beat shakespearian language for performance) and only updated things like having guns vs. swords and having cars, but it very much remains true to the action even.

I wonder how Kenneth Branagh will work out as Professor Gildaroy Lockheart in the next Harry Potter film.

[Grifter]

Has he ever done anything bad?

[Bondo]

The straight to video movie based on a John Grisham book, "The Gingerbread Man".  On second thought the movie had full frontal of a hot woman so it had a modicum of worth.