A July 4th Post: Thomas Paine And The State’s Endless War On The Common Man (And Woman)
I was originally going to put up an astrological post on the battle between good and evil that kicked off in Scorpio of 2013 for this 4th of July. It will be the only astrological post I will ever put up on here. I still plan to put that post up very soon but it has become gargantuan in scope. The topic is wide and deep enough to write a book. So, it requires a fair amount of editing into something that is reasonably concise and readable for a blog. I may actually have to index it depending on its final length. Itt is going to take some time to whittle that post into something that is readable. It will be the most important post I ever put up on this blog so it’s coming soon enough as my next major post.
In the mean time humanity continues to lurch toward its showdown with the global criminal class so I decided to put up a post on Thomas Paine and how relevant his writings and viewpoints are to what is happening around the world today. Humanity would be well-served to reacquaint itself with Paine’s principled view of democracy. I think many people will appreciate how special interests and self interest have brainwashed us to a greater and greater degree over two hundred plus years. How much what the mainstream social views manipulated by class are not freedom at all but tyranny. Both parties in this nation, and those who outsource their thinking to them, look very substantially like the British aristocracy in 1776. Common man doesn’t mean uneducated man. It means ordinary people of all walks of life. When you read this, I think it’s important to keep in mind that Thomas Paine’s views and words are what stirred this nation to democratic revolution. The real state of mind and thought processes of all common people were captivated and captured by Paine’s appeals to their sensibilities and their own personal empowerment. He had exponentially more of an impact on the psyche of the colonists than any other founding father. Yet for two hundred years all of his ideals have been, and continue to be, under massive attack in this nation and around the world. In reality, the American Revolution was a revolution of, by and for the common man. It’s amazing to see how our entire system of democracy has been hijacked by grifters, con men, predators, parasites, politicians, corporations and the like. And all of this pathology is directed at exploiting the individual common man, be he(she) a doctor, a teacher, a laborer, a plumber or whatnot. And that attack is spiritual, emotional and physical. Serve the corporate state and you can become wildly rich in terms of worldly possessions, title, rank and privilege. Serve the common man, your own innate human ideals or that which Thomas Paine espoused, and you will almost certainly die financially destitute but rich in your own spiritual and emotional rewards. Assimilation into the dumbed-down, ignorant corporate state Borg is nearly all-consuming. And, as such, the ideals that this nation and the entire Age of Enlightenment was founded upon are nearly dead. Nearly. Humanity is in recovery and will win this battle.
Paine was a self-educated common man. He was not of the aristocracy and not a land owner. But he saw how the common man, being educated and aware, was capable of making reasoned decisions about his own fate. Of engaging in reasoned conversation and dialog with others to create a just and decent society for the betterment of all. Paine completely rejected the notion of the state and class. He was the leading voice in the pre-Revolutionary War colonies for democratic self-rule. Thomas Paine was THE tour de force of the American Revolution. He was clearly the crown jewel of our founding fathers and was probably the only reason for America’s independence. Literally. For many years Paine’s voice was the only real revolutionary force outside of religious circles. And, because of its treasonous content espousing freedom and liberty from the state, Paine published some of his works anonymously.
Interestingly, on the note of that last sentence, there was a massive movement within many New World religious communities to topple existing state-indoctrinated and state-sponsored religions. Many of these common people had left Europe in rejection of the tyranny of state taxes used to prop up and enforce state religion and the religious aristocracy that state violence created. (European state religion still exists in many nations to this day. And the state still collects mandatory personal taxes on behalf of those religious institutions.) There were many attempts by the king to extend that religious state tyranny to the colonies. That included possible efforts to bring the institutionalization of the king’s religion to the colonies. Some of those rebellious religious New World voices bellowed against the injustices of the comingling of the religious establishment and the state. Today, in this nation, we see that same comingling in this nation as a status quo religious pathology enriches itself with the alignment and support of state power and its inhumane and violent policies including empire’s endless war, tyranny and aggression. Well, and as noted in the last post, the state and institutionalized religion’s war against gay people. Similarly, today we also see many grass roots religious and spiritual awakenings rejecting this comingling of state and religious authority just as happened in pre-Revolutionary War America. Ironically, one of those voices, although not specific to America, is the current Pope who is giving an honest account of the institutionalized corruption and even outright evil in the Vatican and within state comingled religion in general. (Amongst other truths the Pope has exposed the global economic and state evil dominating humanity.) I doubt the Pope will be able to save the Vatican, which is the consummate state religious authority, but he may delay what I see as its possible ultimate demise. Or maybe he will unwittingly hasten it through his own transparency, decency and honesty. Anyway, one of those voices in the New World who we all recognize was the minister who coined the infamous “No taxation without representation”. That was Reverend Jonathan Mayhew. A man who eloquently and very popularly argued publicly that it was our duty as sentient and spiritual beings to resist the tyranny of the state.
For a time Paine was the only famous voice who stated that there was no possible method of amends with Britain and that we must break free of the king and form our own country under democracy. He was unwavering in his opposition to reconciliation. (How today’s Greeks need to find their courage in the words of Thomas Paine. There can be no reconciliation with the undemocratic EU.) This was a very unpopular position with many of our founders until it became apparent to them that Paine was correct. No one in history has aroused the common man as Paine did. Common Sense and the Rights of Man were aimed at the common man and his sensibilities of making his own decisions for his own life and through his own rights, creating his own form of self-government. It’s hard to measure the impact of Paine’s writings but there is some evidence he produced more pamphlets than there were literate people in the colonies. His words became wildly popular and his pamphlets were so foundational to uprisings in every monarchy capable of getting their hands on them. Regardless, it’s quite apparent his writings were the most popular print at that time. More popular than the best selling book of all time, the Bible. Who had ever talked to the common man as Paine did? Who expressed faith in his dignity, his rights and his abilities? No one. One can imagine how stirring to the heart Paine was to so many. He was Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Gandhi and Moses all wrapped into one for the masses of people who had lived lives heretofore considered meaningless by the repression and tyranny of aristocracy. His words were so powerful that England essentially placed him on the terrorist watch list and put a death sentence on his head. Few people really understand the power of Thomas Paine’s words because they see history through a filtered lens. A lens filtered created by the state. No one anywhere in positions of authority really wants the masses to know what Thomas Paine fomented that led to democratic revolution. As Christopher Hitchens points out, never before in history were the words Rights and Man included in the same sentence. It was a novel concept for the common man to have rights. It was novel because the Rights of Man had always been suppressed so that the ruling aristocracy could maintain their authority by living off the economic servitude of the common man to class and the state.
Unlike our dystopian world today where words no longer have meaning, and the play on words by the master manipulators of pathology is used to endlessly deceive, Paine’s words had meaning and consequences for the common person in every nation that got their hands on his writings. He forcefully argued publicly in his writings, while all other founders attempted appeasement with Britain, that there was no chance of any reconciliation with England.
Paine vociferously argued to end the trade of humans, slavery and economic exploitation that was so ingrained in English class-based culture, its aristocratic corporate and land barons and within the trade and exploitation of humanity that created the massive wealth of the British Empire. Paine argued that all men should have the right to vote regardless of property ownership or lack thereof, which was a horror to many founding fathers. Paine wrote of the need for a living wage for all people. And Paine supported worker’s unions and even tried to form a worker’s union against the tyranny of the state while living under the repressive monarchy in England. Paine talked about how poverty created by the state was the foundation for what would become a lawless society and this injustice was the basis for crimes that the state so violently sought to suppress through projections of military and police power. ie, Rather than grant people their economic freedoms, the state used debtor’s prisons, poor houses, prison and ultimately death to enforce the common man’s subjugation to state power. Paine railed on the massive injustices in England that left incredible poverty and homelessness in the cities and the cruelties of common people laboring on the land that seemingly left those who produced all of the food for the aristocracy with none left for themselves. Social Security is based solely on Thomas Paine’s writings of Agrarian Justice. Even the Social Security Administration tells us that on their web site. In fact, Paine went so far as to say when people in a democracy reached a certain age, he wanted government to give them a lump sum of money to get married or open their own business or whatnot. His writings were literally read by just about anyone and everyone of common origin who had the ability to read. And, his words were shared with those who could not read by those who could. His writings were so widely discussed and shared that today it would be comparable of everyone in this nation who was literate being aware of or having read his polemic rantings against the cruelties of the state. And, mind you, he was not universally-loved amongst our founders. He was close to Thomas Jefferson but many of the wealthy founders were very threatened by Paine’s Rights of Man. Poor people and slaves were meant to serve the wealthy and granting them their own rights was just a little too much for many to support.
After successfully inciting revolution in the colonies, Paine’s words incited revolution in France and he actually moved there to fuel the uprising against divine rights of monarchs and merchants. ie, Politicians, corporations, debt-based money and private banks or the tools of state slavery. Yet Paine was not a rabble rouser or member of the mob. He believed in civility and decency. He tried in vain to stop the French mob from its vigilante justice and murdering countless people in kangaroo courts that ultimately destroyed any chance of democracy, and instead, laid the seeds for the rise of the dictator Napoleon. (After being granted honorary citizenship by the French revolutionaries, he ended up in French prison for of speaking out against vigilantism and violence which was simply stooping to the level of the tyrannical aristocracy the French had just sacked.)
Back in the New World, Paine wanted a single house of Congress that was “overly-representative” of the people. (Comparative to the lower House of Commons or our House of Representatives.) He wrote of the British House of Lords or the upper house (Similar to our Senate) as just another form of aristocratic tyranny. He wanted the people’s voice to have greater power than the executive branch that could (and actually has) become a monarchy in this nation. Something Jefferson noted when he actually accused the Washington administration and Alexander Hamilton’s economic policies as setting up a monarchy in Washington. And he wanted judges to be elected rather than appointed by political privilege.
The English crown essentially stated that Paine was to be hanged if he ever returned to his home country. Interestingly, according to Paine’s own words, they burned effigies of him all over England. I find this one fact to be incredibly amusing as today the common man, be he college educated or high school dropout, is still manipulated by the state into believing who their enemy is. Again we burn effigies of who our modern day monarchs and merchants brainwash us into believing is our enemy. And we fight the aristocracy’s wars against the common man in other nations be they economic or military or otherwise. But it was Paine who so presciently wrote the enemy is not the common man but is the state itself. While revolution never came to England, much of the rights and reforms that happened for the next hundred years in England were because of Paine’s writings.
In many regards, Thomas Paine was the American Revolution and was the revolution all across the western world for the rights of the common man. Without any doubts, there would have never been an American Revolutionary War and, thus, possibly no other western revolution towards greater human rights without the support of the common man. There never has been and there never will be progress for human rights without him and her.
Isn’t it ironic to see the endless propaganda of power and authority in this nation and around the world has shit all over the ideals of who may be the main person responsible for the founding of this nation? For literally without the power and meaning of Paine’s words spread to every corner of the colonies, there would have been no possibility of the common man supporting independence. Thomas Paine is the poster child for why the state has book burnings. And we certainly have plenty of our own figurative book burnings in the modern world created by the state. In fact, through the tyrannical actions and usurpations of the state, they have figuratively burned the contents of Common Sense and The Rights of Man many times over. And the most obvious example of that is the absolute failure of our educational system that has left the masses substantially illiterate. This is no coincidence. This is a modern form of book burning (attempts at keeping the common man ignorant to state authority) that is no different than what the Nazis or the British Empire did.
Is there anyone in Washington who espouses the ideals of Thomas Paine? Personally, I would say no without any equivocation. No one within any political party could qualify. For they only got to where they are by serving party ideology in lieu of the Rights of Man. The closest I surmise may be the flawed but seemingly genuine Bernie Sanders. All I see are the antithesis of Paine’s ideals of a society where the common man is his own king and able to determine his own fate and the fate of his community and his nation, be they college-educated or high school dropout or be that genius or simple man. Our masters do not want this. And they clearly suppress the rights and freedoms of the common man.
There is so much about the times of the American Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment that has been suppressed or written out of history by the state. Like people rising up to grab land from the aristocratic land owners in the colonies or forced renters rebelling against aristocratic landlords. Or, the endless war that left Britain massively indebted to private banks. Or the massive addictions, homelessness and poverty that corporate capitalism created in Britain. Or, the massive power grabs with greater and greater rules of violence and force in the colonies created by the state. Or, the attempts to raise taxes through the roof on colonists in order to pay for endless state profligacy. Or, the intrusions of the king’s police force, the British Army, into people’s homes and lives in the colonies. Or the forced use of the king’s private, debt-based money to enslave the colonies into debt servitude that enriched the economic aristocracy. Sound familiar?
It was the common man who really provided the impetus for revolutionary change. Because it is the common man who is exploited by the aristocracy and the state. That is how class (the state) actually maintains its grip on humanity. Today we see the common man is once again yearning to have their voice heard. 250 years ago it was Thomas Paine who gave them their voice. 2,500 years ago it was Pericles. Who shall it be today? We shall see. But in many regards, with the advent of instantaneous communications and the Internet connecting all of us into virtual communities around the world, the world is in the midst of a leaderless revolution of the common man. And, in a world where the common man is born with inalienable rights, that is as it should be. A leaderless, classless revolution to reclaim his rights. Is that what we witness from the common man today?
The state has obliterated the founding ideals of this nation. It has worked for the last two hundred years to destroy any semblance of the Rights of Man and Common Sense for the masses. The common man has no voice in this nation regardless of political party. Or, maybe I should say the common man has no voice because of political parties. The state has attacked everything Paine stood for and in some manner or fashion has worked over decades and centuries to destroy all of those ideals. The question is why? The answer is obvious. Because evil covets that which we all have. And it does so by controlling us to loot our wit and our labor to maintain their authoritarian pathology – “Woe to him that coveteth to build his house (power, wealth and authority) through unjust gain.”
Here are the complete writings of Thomas Paine by Project Gutenberg. Although they actually aren’t the complete writings. Paine was a prolific writer and most of his writings were lost by accident. Paine fled England where he was to be tried for sedition and hanged by the king for actually speaking out against the cruelties and injustices of England. I am not sure anyone really knows what all he wrote while in England but one thing he did write was the Case of the Excise Officers in 1772.
Christopher Hitchens – How Thomas Paine’s “rights” changed the world on NPR. A discussion of Hitchen’s investigative book on the real Thomas Paine.
Book review of Hitchen’s biography of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine – The Most Valuable Englishman Ever (Video)
Thomas Paine – The Most Valuable Englishman Ever, Part 2
Bill Moyers discussion on Thomas Paine (Video)
Thomas Paine Historical Society
An audiobook of Common Sense you can fire up on your tablet or PC. And here is his The Age of Reason also on audiobook. And, finally his The Rights of Man on audiobook.
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