Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered

I was way early for class last week so I decided to visit the library. Never had I borrowed a book from the comfy library where I normally sleep, but today I was wide awake and decided to actually look at the books and not just the periodicals. Walking through the aisles at random certain famous books stood out: the leviathan, the prince, and the works of Thomas Paine. Seeing the book of Thomas Paine’s work, I recalled a friend once recommending Common Sense, so I picked it up and flipped through the first few pages. Within those pages I found it extremely odd that the editor would say that Thomas Paine was not a remarkable thinker but a remarkable popularizer whose gift for bold and graphic expression made him a natural pamphleteer. Wasn't this the Thomas Paine I'd learnt about in class who ignited two revolutions? Who single handedly united the spirits of the colonies and brought them all together? How could such a man be nothing short of genius!! And what was the editor thinking writing something like that? How are you gonna sell books! It's like having a book review on the front cover saying "horridly dry".

Anyhow as it was a library and I didn't have to fork out any cash I decided I was still going to borrow it despite the editor’s note. Reading Common Sense, I found it really good and enjoyable to read.

"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; 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 defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason. As a long and violent abuse of power, is generally the Means of calling the right of it in question (and in Matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the Sufferers been aggravated into the inquiry) and as the King of England hath undertaken in his OWN RIGHT, to support the Parliament in what he calls THEIRS, and as the good people of this country are grievously oppressed by the combination, they have an undoubted privilege to inquire into the pretensions of both, and equally to reject the usurpation of either. In the following sheets, the author hath studiously avoided every thing which is personal among ourselves. Compliments as well as censure to individuals make no part thereof. The wise, and the worthy, need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and those whose sentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will cease of themselves unless too much pains are bestowed upon their conversion. The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested. The laying a Country desolate with Fire and Sword, declaring War against the natural rights of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the Face of the Earth, is the Concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling; of which Class, regardless of Party Censure, is the AUTHOR."

This further confirmed my notion that the editor was an idiot. However after reading more of his works, especially his Numbers V, I started to believe maybe the editor was right. Reading on I came to the conclusion that he was right. Common Sense could probably be equated to a one hit wonder. The rest of his works were needless repetition and dramatization, and Numbers V was an outright attack on General Howe and showed absolutely no grace or diplomatic cunning. Also there were parts where he insulted the person rather than their argument which is just silly. He also went on and on about their strategies and superiority. An additional advantage would be having your enemy in the dark about your strategies; Paine however blurted it all out for the sake of dramatization and personal insult. After finishing numbers, I merely browsed through the rest of his work. Some bits were nice, and others were simply disastrous. All in all I would say that Paine was not a remarkable thinker but a remarkable popularizer whose gift for bold and graphic expression accompanied with shear luck made him a historical figure.