How ‘Common Sense’ by Thomas Paine helped create the Current America
The ‘Common Sense’ by Thomas Paine is an essay that has been formulated purposely to urge the commoners to fight for their freedom and break away from the corrupt Britain government. Paine begins this essay by stating that his intentions are pure and that all that he is doing is giving simple facts and plain arguments (326). By doing this, this essay gains credibility right from the start and it helps to persuade the readers through the ethics and ethos appeal. Through this essay, Paine criticizes Great Britain terming it to be a necessary evil that should be eradicated. Paine uses irrefutable facts to gain his readers trust and this makes his accusations of the Great Britain very believable. Paine argues that Great Britain takes advantage of the terminology ‘mother’ country to manipulate the colonists’ minds and emotions which helped them to ultimately keep them from rebellion. Great Britain is defined in this essay as the persecutor of America and he goes ahead to explain to the colonists with facts the reasons as to why this is true. Just like Paine illustrates, independence is something that is important; it is something that every nation should seek to attain in order to help them achieve freedom as well as development. Paine through his work ‘Common Sense’ is the father of the American independence, his message of independence is effective and it helped shape the America that exists today.
Common sense is a reading that had a tremendous influence during the year 1776, it was read by masses and this helped to create revolutionary thoughts and ideas of freedom away from the British rule. ‘Common Sense’ stands out in its influence in the American society with the fact that it was came abut at a time when there were external influences such as mass media or even the internet. There was nothing that competed with the urgency of the message that Paine was trying to pass across to the society. Dictions such as tyranny, monster and cruelty are repeated several times in the essay to define the actions of Great Britain (Nash, p 13). These words helps to illustrate the feelings of Paine towards England and these feelings are transferred to the readers. Paine’s main argument is that America has evolved and that it no longer needs Great Britain because all that it does is hurt them with the tyrannical government. Through the uses of rhetorical parallelism, Paine created a flow within the text where he employed repetition which is valuable in getting reality to stay in the minds of the readers (Nash, p 13). This rhetorical strategy was effective in that it was able to get his ideas of revolt to his readers and this was done in a persuasive manner that did not make him seem to be too radical and extreme. Common Sense sparked a wild fire of independence rationale amongst the colonial society and it inspired passionate responses from both the patriots and the loyalists. Paine’s thoughts helped the American society to see the reality of the oppressive lives that they were living in while England continued to flourish (Dennehy, p. 185).
In those years, the British subjects had no authority; they were inadequate and always expected to follow the British rule blindly. Hereditary monarchical ruling deterred the people in the colonies from having any leadership roles which affected the whole ruling structure (Paine, p. 20). The colonies had no chance in power and this deterred them from developing and giving their views on various political matters. Paine in his work demonized hereditary monarchy illustrating that all human beings were equal in the order of creation. Paine argued that monarchies created a distinction between the rich and the poor; he quoted oppression as a means to richness meaning that the rich continued to be wealthier at the expense of the poor (Paine, p. 11). They could not be received or even heard because they were insignificant to the rest of the world and this affected their chances of international prosperity and stability. The thoughts of freedom are something that was in the minds of many people, but they were afraid and did not know how to go about it. Paine, through his arguments helped to create a context that helped these people to see the reality of the issue of independence and how it can be achieved (Nash, p 16). Through his essay, he created that illusion that made this people feel informed and thus helped them formulate their own ideas which made the urge for independence to become more vigorous.
Paine’s argument that the British government is a necessary evil was greatly relevant in the sense that the government is always expected to protect the general population but this is not what was happening then (Paine, p. 2). The British government instead of protecting the people was exploiting them and affecting their chances of growth and development which brought about the need of a new government for the American colonies. Paine goes further in his argument to illustrate that Europe is the parent country of America, he illustrates that no parent would consume their young, something that he believes that England is doing to America (Paine, p. 26). The European nations at the time exploited America to increase their wealth and also broaden their world affairs at the expense of the Americans. These European nations moved to America around the year 1650 where they first settled at the United States as they established and increased their dominant presence on the Atlantic coast (Dennehy, p. 187). Range spread around the year 1765 when the Stamp Act was introduced, this law that was passed by the British Parliament imposed direct taxes on the American colonies. This was something new for these colonies and so it triggered so much hatred and rebellion from them which is why Paine’s essay greatly motivated the colonies to rebel against this sort of governance.
Paine had a great contribution to the notion of democracy in America. Through his work, he helped the people understand the importance of working together for the better good. A society can only be built if people join together and work together for the greater good and the British government restricted this from happening by dividing the people (Paine, p. 4). Even without having to directly involve himself; Paine’s declaration for independence became a reality when the people realized that what he was trying to tell them was factual. America became independent because the colonies believed in Paine’s argument for independence for all the colonies. Even though he initially proposed independence for thirteen colonies, his proposal greatly helped to structure and shape the present modern governmental systems of the USA today. His ideas and influences became the thoughts of the American society. He was able to bring different societies together, showing them how unity could help them work against Britain rule and following these guidelines in the end helped them win the revolt (Dennehy, p. 187).
Pain through ‘Common Sense’ established a theory of society and government. This work made its case for revolution on the most pragmatic term, basically focusing on the economic and security independence which are some of the issues that resonate even in the contemporary society (Solinger, p. 535). For Paine, the outcomes the outcome was just as important as the message and he was very careful and he ensured that there was common ground which is why he opted to persuade through facts. Common Sense helped the American people to change their thinking and they stopped following the commands into the revolution. They began to follow their desire for independence and this gave motivation to fight on and get their victory over Britain at the end (Dennehy, p. 186). Paine can be defined to be the cornerstone in the solidification of American unity, pride and freedom because his argument helped the colonists to see the reality in the oppressive lives that they were living.
The intellectual style in which Paine structured his arguments was impressive in an extraordinary way and this is attributed to the consistency of his arguments. The great intellectual force of Common Sense lies in its setback of the assumptions that motivated the arguments. This is a setback that obligated the attentive readers to reflect not so much on the points and the conclusions but on entirely new ways of looking at the complete array of the problems that are involved (Nash, p 16). Underneath all the clear arguments and conclusions on individuality lay some important, implicit and even theorized presuppositions, approaches and habits of thoughts that made it very tough for the colonists to break away from England (Solinger, p. 605). Something that deterred them from finding the independent future that included freedom and security that they so much sought. The special rational worth of Paine’s argument goes a long way toward clarifying its influences on the present-day readers. It stems from its setback of these fundamental conjectures and its fluctuation of the recognized perspectives, to the point where the whole conventional paradigm within which the American debate had up until the preceded came about.
Paine understood that there were no set of philosophies that were more intensely fixed in the British and American awareness other than just the concept that freedom could endure in a world of distinctively ambitious and selfish societies. This is a place where the stability of the opposing forces was so established that no contender could dominate the influence of the state and the decree short of operational antagonism. The colonies were so much dependent on Britain believing that they were not strong enough to endure and flourish on their own (Paine, p. 11). Paine in his argument helped these colonies to understand this perception was wrong; he made them realize that they were being misled by the ancient prejudices and superstitions. England selfishly pretended to protect the colonies but it was all a plot to gain economically from them. The colonies as advised by Paine have never really needed England for protection; instead all that they did is suffer from it. These colonies had greater chances of flourishing if they had not relied on this protection because their prosperity was based on commerce and this is something that continues to flourish as long as the world is alive (Nash, p 17). America had greater chances of flourishing had it not been attached to England, this attachment led it to be burdened with quarrels from the European states with whom it would have been harmoniously relating with. America ended up getting dragged in monarchical rivalries with which it had no state in and this tragically limited the chances of America getting associated with the rest of the world (Paine, p. 29).
Through ‘Common Sense’, Paine attacked the fears of independence by aggressively redesigning the locations on which the uncertainties that were there had rested. It had always been opinionated that if the colonies were left by themselves, they would extinguish themselves in a civil conflict. Paine however assured the colonies that the civil strife that had become known by the Americans had streamed from the linking with England and that it was essential and inevitable part of the colonial linking (Paine, p. 44). It had also always been claimed that America was weak and that it had no power to survive a war with a European power. Paine in his argument America had the ability and if given the chance had a blend of boundless resources for naval structure and it also had a massive coastal allowance that endorsed it to be strong and one of the most capable naval power (Paine, p. 55). America is today capable of sustaining a great military effort and it has come to be known as one of the states that have the best militia power in the world. America is the country that every individual wishes to go to because of the great business opportunities that are available there thus defying the beliefs and assumptions of England.
This essay greatly addresses contemporary crises of divisiveness and the ability of modern societies to see eye to eye. It at the same time also suggests the intractability of the problem, because America has changed unlike in the times of Paine. The American society today has grown too big, too scattered and burdened with information and opinion while at the same time trying to insulate from opposing points of view. The society today has lost its capacity to carry on a rational dispute as a significance of the decline of reading and also the increase of electronic media that makes everything to cohabit in a never ending contemporary tense. The decision by Paine to address his fellow colonists directly was as innovative during his time just as blogs are in the contemporary society. This is one of the main reasons why he still continues to shine all through this time. His ideas spread across nations, motivating those to seek independence at all cost and this message is still relevant in the society today. Independence can be associated with any situation whether it is in the business, education or any other sector. Freedom gives room for great ideas to be developed and this leads to more growth in the society. Paine’s message in ‘Common Sense’ is crystal clear and it is an illustration that one idea can change the world and that one individual can make a difference and this is the seed of American Independence.
Works cited
Dennehy, Robert F., et al. “Thomas Paine: Creating the New Story for a New Nation.” TAMARA: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science, vol. 5, no. 3/4, Sept. 2006, pp. 183–192. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=24327350&site=ehost-live.
Nash, David. “The Gain from Paine.” History Today, vol. 59, no. 6, June 2009, pp. 12–18. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=41326592&site=ehost-live.
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Alexandria, VA. Capitol Net Inc. Copyright, 2011. Print.
Solinger, Jason D. “Thomas Paine’s Continental Mind.” Early American Literature, vol. 45, no. 3, Nov. 2010, pp. 593–617. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/eal.2010.0029
