Tuesday, July 21, 2009

A study of "Common Sense", by Thomas Paine, Part I

I am reading "Common Sense" all the way through for the first time. This is hard for me to admit, because I consider myself fairly knowledgable of American History and of our country's founding in particular. But I have never read the document from front to back. I have referenced parts of it, but not gotten the totality of the document in my head or appreciated its brilliance or impact in any meaningful way before.

Now that I have, I am floored by the document. I have been quite literally stunned by reading it. I have come to passages that have forced me to put it down and ponder it for a week or more. I am still not done reading it. Each day that I read it, I need a couple of more to digest and think about it. It has been a slow read, but a rewarding one.

A couple of thoughts have come to me while reading it;

1. Why has this document not been read, in its entirety, by every high school student in America? This pamphlet literally changed the course of human history and it is part of our national heritage. It defines who we are as a people and should be a constant reminder to all of us as to where we come from. The reason why is that it is a boldly Christian document. Much like the Mayflower Compact, what little of it is in our children's history books are expunged from any explicitly Christian references. This is simply not acceptable. Non-Christians can benefit greatly from the arguments presented and understanding the document in the Christian context in which it was written. If their belief system is true, then they have nothing to fear from an historical document that contains Christian references.

2. It is time to discuss the themes and concepts of this document in a modern context and have a real and intelligent discussion of ideas in our polity. Politics in this country has degraded to an almost insufferable level. It seems that there is an inverse relationship between the length of the news cycle and the intellectual heft of the discussion and thought behind the discussion. We are in very real danger of losing our country to a semi-permanent political class of politicians and power-brokers that do not have the best interests of our children's posterity at heart when making decisions. We have a media that is so ignorant of our country's origins that it doesn't even know what it doesn't know, and a population that has been weened from the very font of liberty, which is our heritage, by a mindless march towards some ethereal concept of "equality". Our country was founded upon Liberty, not Equality. And it still runs in our veins, I am convinced of it.

I have decided to write a series of essays on my thoughts while reading Paine's great work. As always, my intent is to provoke thought and discussion. If our political debates in this country were as high-minded and intellectual as those that our founding fathers had, we would find ourselves in a much better place than we can see today, I am convinced. So I am attempting to do my part by investigating how we got here in the first place.

In my next post I will start with the Christian character of the work, and why it should be encouraging to Christians, and informative to others and should not be threatening to those that do not share that faith. The work is in no way outdated or irrelevant in today's political climate which will come as a surprise to some and relief to others. My desire is for every American to read "Common Sense" and revive our national consciousness of our heritage for which we have so much to be thankful.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

An Ass for a Lion, or a Lion for a Lamb?

"One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in
kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently
turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion." - Thomas Paine,

Common Sense


I cannot think of a proper modern corellary for socialism, but there is a truism here in the making. Paine argued forcefully and eloquently against monarchy. We need a modern Paine to argue forcefully and eloquently against progressivism-statism-fascism-communism-socialism-ism-ism. The only difference is that Paine had to make allowances for the occasional good and righteous king that was actually a boon to his people. No collective form of government ever known to mankind can make such a claim.

Everyone can concieve of a church group or small, community of worshippers whom are persecuted and hide in the shadows, sharing their wealth, skills and fortunes in a relationship of love. This is a picture of the early Christian church. If we could guarantee that all people were dedicated, committed Christians that lived their faith and never disagreed upon interpretation of scripture, I think we could make this form of government work to some degree.

Meanwhile, back on earth, people are sinners. They are prideful, greedy, dishonest, cruel, inconsiderate, and many other wonderful things. Even if they weren't, there are points of disagreement even within a single Christian denomination that would drive men to compete and attempt to dominate and win the argument, even under the best of circumstances.

If this is the best that we could do within a single worldview, a single religious denomination, where one could assume the most consistent agreement upon right and wrong, and general decision-making, then what hope does any nation of millions have? What hope does our nation made up of millions of disparate and diverse backgrounds, faiths, philosophies, and worldviews? What possible hope have we for this imaginary utopia, promised by slick politicians? None.

In fact, what socialism is, and all of its variation-isms, is an attempt to create utopia - or heaven - here on earth. Is that not the dream of the socialist paradise? No one gets hurt, everyone has enough money and food. Everyone has a comfortable place to live. Everyone has respect for each other and they all get along great. Isn't that what the socialist promise is?

This is a direct attempt to create paradise on earth. Perfection, created by Man. It reminds me of a passage in Isaiah,

"But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my
throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the
recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I
will make my self like the Most High." Isaiah 14:13-14


This is the overreach of Lucifer talking. Heaven cannot be constructed on earth by any men, and those that claim that they can must be guarded against, for they are ravenous lions. What socialists don't want to face is that everyone isn't respectable, kind, good, decent, honest, peaceful, loving, and respectful of others. In fact few are this way.

Socialism preys upon the pride of men, and that inner beast that says to himself, "I'm a good man". It preys upon this notion and lets every man believe that he is good, and therefore so are most others. It is only a bad few that spoil the pot for the rest of us. If we can just round those fellows up and put them somewhere, you know, where they can't hurt anyone any longer, then we can get back to this business of making the perfect nation.

We can create a nation in our own image. Devised by men, created by men, ruled by men, better that the rest of us. That is how it works.

The smarter, connected, or just luckier few, start seeing themselves as better than the others and we can make decisions for the "great unwashed", the "dumb rednecks", or whatever pejorative term you would prefer. They become the intelligencia and start designing this utopia for the rest of us. The problem they have is that it decsends into cronyism and mafia-style relationship peddling like every other form of tyrannical government ever to stain the soil of this earth.

Like I said in previous posts, as far as types of government or political spectrums, there is the United States of America, as created by the Founding Fathers on one side the fence, and every single other form of government ever devised by man is on the OTHER side of the fence. All of them.

Socialism promises ease and comfort for the least of us. It promises dignity, respect, material security. It promises to be our paschal lamb. What it delivers is a ravenous beast that cannot easily be caged once it is released. No socialism isn't monarchy and delivers not an ass for a lion, but rather a lion for a lamb.