Common Sense II – A Time to Think

COMMON SENSE II
By Publius II

INTRODUCTION: Early Christian writers believed in and practiced reflection during and following reading. Thru this thought process they not only discovered insights into human nature; they also found reading the written word enjoyable.

Johannes Gutenburg’s invention of the printing press enabled writing to spread rapidly. It has been argued that this invention created the modern mind. Print spread new ideas so that other thinking people could further develop them.

Much later came television, which robs today’s people of their thinking time. Will the e-reader resurrect the Gutenburg legacy?

PAINE’S INSPIRATION

Begin with some thoughts of Thomas Paine, an Englishman who lived during the late 18^th century and wrote the original Common Sense. As a visionary Paine ranks among history’s tiny minority of out-of-the-box thinkers. He made up for his lack of formal education largely thru reflection.

He liked to spend time entertaining stray thoughts of the type that pop into everyone’s head. Whenever one of these excited him he took quill pen in hand and set it to paper. In this way he built over years an impressive data base.

Publius II has done the same thing during the past 35 years while forsaking the quill pen in favor of a word processor. Getting into the habit required a lot of discipline. There was always something to do around the house and other concerns weighing on the mind.

Many periods of reflection gained nothing useful, but with Paine as an inspiration he persisted. The result is essays that contain instances of original thinking.

But Paine did not stop there. For along with creative thinking he had the insight to see in depth government oppressions of their peoples and the courage to act.

When he published Rights of Man in 1792 he was in England. The British government reacted with horror, burned copies of the book and swore out a warrant for his arrest on suspicion of sedition.

A friend tipped him off and so he hopped aboard a boat bound for France. It left Dover just 20 minutes before the warrant reached the port. Later he spent time in prison, but his courage remained a part of him.

Obviously the Founding Fathers of the USA learned nothing about democracy from the British government. Fortunately there were visionaries among the colonists. These men had the courage to “—– pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor” (from the Declaration of Independence). Now, there was commitment. How many citizens today would put their names to such a declaration?

In 1776 Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was perfectly timed, and he knew it. “O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression.

“Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her. — Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”

Englishman Paine knew his history and he could write. Elsewhere among his essays Publius II elaborates on an evil aspect of human nature that, if not checked by the people, will surely lead to rule by kings and dictators. This tendency has been obvious since before the Roman Empire, but only to thinking citizens. Paine elaborated on the vital importance of courage:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

Publius II freely admits to advocating conflict in response to today’s gridlocked, bloated, paternalistic, overbearing and corrupt government, but only the nonviolent variety. Throughout history societies have renewed themselves, as they had to, thru bloodshed.

The first head of a major country to step aside without violence was George Washington. Thomas Jefferson advocated small revolutions from time to time, but he too much preferred the nonviolent type.

In fact, such a “revolution” every 25-30 years enabled society to renew itself while avoiding bloodshed (with but one exception). This fact explains today’s predicament. The last “revolution” took place during the Great Depression in the 1930s, which is far too long ago to fit “from time to time.”

Several significant events took place in the interim. World War II fired up a dormant manufacturing capacity, which pried the nation loose from the lingering misery of the depression. Without the horrendous waste of war there was a huge accumulation of wealth after 1945.

Although FDR’s emergency spending programs did nothing to help the economy, politicians promptly gave themselves credit for ending the depression. A gullible public believed them and so kept paying high wartime taxes to support these programs.

The advent of television combined with continuing high taxes to enable politicians to spend mightily to enhance their telegenic images. They saw an opportunity to make a career in politics. Human nature and lack of accountability gradually enabled public service to become self-service.

The 1960’s saw a revolution and about right on schedule. But the revolutionaries had no detailed plan of government to put in place after they had removed the old one. Besides, there was far too much money and power accumulated in Washington supporting the status quo for a bunch of young rebels to succeed.

Paine persisted: “By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope ——————-. Look on this picture and weep over it! And if there remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented (emphasis added).”

The man thought and wrote tough. But he never lost sight of his vision.

“When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am the friend of its happiness: when these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and its government.”

Thomas Paine wanted morality and democracy at home for his adopted country. He wanted peace on earth and goodwill toward men and women. He and Publius II are kindred spirits. How many more will have the courage to “stand forth?”

Psalm 23 in the Christian Bible begins with “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” This and other guidelines for spiritual life can be and often are misinterpreted. Or, perhaps their full meanings are not always understood.

Some say Christians and others should only give themselves over to God and pray a lot. Then there will be peace on earth and goodwill toward men and women.

Indeed, the implication could be that people should behave like sheep. But sheep don’t think either. Quite possibly this dictum can work well if limited to the spiritual dimension of life, but the political dimension needs something more.

At grave risk of sounding blasphemous, Publius II wonders how faith and prayer for peace has worked over the past two millenniums. This time period includes a whole lot of praying and a whole lot of war.

Today society is declining and a nuclear holocaust may loom on the horizon. Surely the time has come to “stand forth” while continuing with prayer as citizens move society away from top-down government by a ruling elite class (including Donald Trump) and towards democracy.

“To boldly go where none have gone before —-.” True democracy has never before existed in the world.

The original Common Sense was and is still considered the toughest writing on liberty in the English language. Thomas Paine served as an aide to General George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

He gave part of his earnings to Washington, who spent years desperately asking for men and equipment from a cash-strapped Continental Congress. After Common Sense had been widely read Washington exclaimed, “Paine was worth more than the whole army!” The (quill) pen was mightier than the sword.

King George III of England leaned hard on his colonists. Paine felt that the only way to freedom was thru armed rebellion. He wrote to strengthen the feelings of true patriots and also to convert other colonists to the cause.

With the publishing of Common Sense II the essays seek rebellion, but under two vitally different circumstances. The first is that in 1776 the oppressor was far away and the oppression was far more obvious and severe than it is now.

Today the enemy lurks within. While few called him a king, millions thought that George Bush ruled over his subjects almost like King George III of England did back then. His popularity rating was 20-30 percent.

Bush and his predecessors over the previous 40 or so years did not use soldiers to oppress the citizens. Rather they used gigantic personal power and incalculable amounts of taxpayer money accumulated while expanding government without limit. This policy violated the Constitution and its intent to limit the size of government.

Euphoria over President Obama’s election hyped his popularity rating. Then it diminished as always. The new president was a senator for four years so he knows that even as president he and a gridlocked congress can do little to change the system. That must be done by an outside force: the citizens. Stay tuned.

The kicker is that he very probably does not want to change it, all the hype about being the “people’s president” and flogging change during his two-year campaign notwithstanding.

Bill Clinton used much the same approach: “We are going to take back our government from the greedy special interests ——–.” But like Bush and most of the other post-World War II presidents he too is a member of the elite class.

Citizens did not authorize this class to evolve. Rather, they permitted it thru neglecting to hold public servants accountable to them. The Declaration of Independence specifies government according to “consent of the governed.” Today no one seems to remember this vital principle.

The second circumstance is that due to less severe abuse of personal freedoms individual liberty under democracy can be acquired without violence. But it is urgent that citizens act now.

Any further delay and the dark side of human nature and lack of accountability will guide Big Government toward greater abuse just as sure as night follows day. World history has demonstrated this tragic trend and its blood-soaked end time and again.

During the current banking and economic crises the door is being swung wide open for further abuse as government uses taxpayer money to take over much of the economy. Big Government is rapidly getting bigger. In spite of any promises it will stay that way after the economic and financial gun smoke settles. Human nature guarantees this greatly undesirable and ultimately tragic result.

Big Government has commandeered several hundred billion taxpayer dollars here, another several hundred billion there, and there is no guarantee how much more before the economy finally again picks up steam. The national debt is now about $20 trillion, and that is only what is on the books. Unborn children will grow up and pay a major portion of this monstrous obligation while getting no benefits from all those earnings commandeered.

This situation brings forth in a thinking citizen’s mind the theory of accumulation of money. This theory suggests that whenever a mountain of money accumulates in one place and looks to stay there for a while thieves will find ways to dip into the mother lode. This did happen, and all the worse when the urgency to spend money quickly during the great crises did not allow time for a reliable system for monitoring the outlays to be put in place.

A grim record of government thievery secretly accumulated before the crises points unerringly in this direction. Furthermore survey results suggest that citizens believe that close to half the money big government collects from them is wasted. No one spends someone else’s money as carefully as they spend their own.

It is urgent that more citizens realize that Washington is littered with looters who are familiar with the theory and flock to where the big money is. And today that mountain is suddenly much bigger. This development is drawing thousands more.

Publius II wants to convince the reader to read and think hard and long about what the government in Washington DC is doing to citizens while the rhetoric pounds on about what it is doing for them. (Turn off the TV and mobile phones.) Put another way, there is truth thruout his essays and truth in government is being suppressed elsewhere.

Big Government avoids truth because top officials fear its ability to expose deception and fraud. This is why citizens who express ideas that don’t agree with government policies are called unpatriotic or worse. Big Government controls the news media so it can fry those who have the courage to speak out. Their criticisms almost never see the light of day.

It always has been easier for kings and dictators to crack heads than to crack ideas. If the message is perceived as a threat to their power base just shoot the messenger. In a society that is steeped in personality politics this tactic works like a charm.

Examples include post-9/11 efforts to explain why that mass tragedy happened. Those who attempted to speak out found their voices muffled. They were not shot, as might be the result in a country like Russia or China, but their messages surely were.

Citizens who attempted to speak out against the war in Iraq were treated in a similar manner by compliant news media. These good citizens exercising their First Amendment right to speak out were “unpatriotic,” “treasonous,” “harming soldiers on the battlefield,” etc.

From Thomas Paine’s Introduction (February 14, 1776): “Who the author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, and not the Man. ———- he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle.”

Today’s writer also believes that the separation of doctrine from person is critically important. This explains his preference for the pseudonym Publius II. Finally, Paine’s last statement above applies as well to him.

The original Publius was actually three men: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. They wrote the Federalist Papers, which were published over the signature “Publius” in prominent newspapers in 1788. These essays encouraged ratification of the proposed Constitution of the United States of America.

That document was a radical departure from the practically ineffective Articles of Confederation that had guided governance in the infant nation prior to 1789. Today’s essays and pocket gofers are intended to accomplish a similar radical and nonviolent change in the nation’s central government.

It is Publius II’s hope and prayer that readers of his essays will find their thinking stimulated. He further hopes that this new thinking will generate discussion, criticism, debate and action (the democratic process). Finally, he hopes his countrymen and women will discuss, debate, modify and ratify the proposed new constitution (published as Pocket Gofer 21). A summary appears in the essay “A Thought on Government Over the Long Term”.

Any reader who agrees with every thought in the essays is not a thinking citizen. He/she would be of limited use in the future democracy being advocated. Democracy needs thinking citizens because it relies on dissent as a vehicle for constructive change.

If the offered vision of democracy should find favor with the mass of citizens children of this nation’s future would grow to become fully adult, marry, and produce children in a society guided by morality and democracy at home and peace abroad.

May the SPIRIT of ’76 rise again. With stout minds and hearts united, let us move forward.

Here are the titles of some 8-page essays that illustrate the depth of the malaise that has infected the US society. They are written to stimulate serious thinking, discussion and action among concerned citizens.