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| Thomas Paine |
George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson - all acknowledged that Paine's "Common Sense" was the deciding factor in turning the tide of public opinion in favor of independence in America.....
Paine put forth some very sensible arguments about human rights, personal freedom, and the dangers of a government unanswerable and unaccountable to the people.....
"Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things.... what at first was submitted to as a convenience was afterwards claimed as a right."
"Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things.... what at first was submitted to as a convenience was afterwards claimed as a right."
"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 a government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer!"
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| Don't be sheepish about this! |
"We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
In America you still have that option and
We are "an audience which does exist"....
7 comments:
DTS starts at Noon!
Bill,
I'm holding my breath, but he is my President, too.
You seem to miss the point made in "Common Sense"!
But in the interim, ya' got to deal with what you got - right?
... and it appears there is at least a change in course toward a clam of Common Sense - right?
What's your take?
Make that a "claim", although many are expecting a "clam-ity"
I believe that President Trump was channeling our Founding Fathers who believed that you need a government, but only to do limited things! Your liberty and the size of Government are in inverse proportion.
You are clearly a confused person. You rail against government excess, yet seem to believe that government is the solution. Very interesting but inconsistent.
We have the first President since George Washington who is beholding to no one! Might have a chance at getting something done for the American people for once!
I have to say that I personally believe that Washington is rolling in his grave over the current state of our nation. In 1776, President Washington presented a 32 page farewell address to the American people. It was written as a simple letter to friends, but in summary, contained a multitude of warnings and advice to future generations of America about the forces he feared could destroy the American experiment. Many of those forces are alive and well today. One of those warnings, was against the dangers of excessive partisanship or factionalism. I think we've certainly seen that.
Factions, he said, lead to partisanship, and then to the running of the government by a party “often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community, that can seize power in a way that overrides … the delegated will of the nation.” (We've seen an awful lot of overides already.) This, he warned is “of fatal tendency” to a democracy.
“Combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, [but] they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
"Common Sense" is one of the greatest publishings in our history. The only problem I see with it now, is that it almost belongs in the "Fantasy" seaction in the bookstore. It has too much of that common sense stuff! It seems that in today's world, common sense is simply "fantasy". It seems that more and more people lack common sense and the ability to understand a point of view outside the tiny box they live in. There's too much surface level thinking. Deep thinking; getting down to the heart of the matter simply requires too much work. This opens the door to all kinds of easy manipulation, and the manipulators have been pouring in. A recent quote I overheard from a senator, discussing this manipulation opportunity....... with a sly grin, "around here, facts are negotiable, but opinions are rock solid." -- Let that sink in a little. Perhaps it's the subtle evil of of generalization at work.
The United States of America has entered a new age, a new developmental stage. Welcome to the era of "Alt-Reality", and witness the mass brainwashing of the American people.
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