Thomas Paine

The publication History Today has an excellent article on Thomas Paine:

Unique among radicals, the 200th anniversary of the death of Thomas Paine will be marked in England, in France and across the Atlantic. This is a measure of the impact of Paine’s ideas both in his own country and in parts of the world that became the centre of revolutionary political change at the end of the 18th century. Paine was perhaps fortunate to live in such invigorating times and to be able to think about them so constructively. Yet what is remarkable is that his message has been capable of speaking with immediacy to each successive generation, providing radical inspiration and comfort in troubled times. This is because Paine was a persuasive author with a gift for penetrating, lucid and memorable language. However, he was also actively participating in the revolutions he wished to inspire. Both through word and deed he could justly claim ‘the world is my country and my religion to do good.’

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Common Sense conveys a breathless energy and appetite for change. In its first few pages Paine urges the American people to form a government from scratch, a chance almost without precedent, which the colonists should grasp with both hands since it was likely this would be their best opportunity. The fact that this would lead to conflict and a swift call to arms was a dramatic consequence that should be recognised:

By referring the matter from argument to arms, a new era for politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen. All plans, proposals ... are like the almanacks of the last year, which though proper then, are superseded and useless now.

Paine argued that the American colonists had right and justice on their side in their struggle for independence. He also suggested that the colonies could afford such a break with Britain since they were prosperous and economically independent. However, he did not simply offer these as arguments for freedom, but went further to ask Americans to think about what they wished to do with their independence once they had gained it. Paine demonstrated that American freedom was wholly justified since the ancient, corrupt and privilege-ridden British monarchy had dispensed with fairness and justice in favour of coercing the colonies into submission.

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Although Paine’s critique did not fit the analysis of later Marxist socialism he had an influence on social democratic ideals. With the collapse and discredit of Marxism in the years after 1989 interest in Paine, with his undiluted focus upon individual rights surrounded by a network of enabling social mechanisms, was to some extent revived. Yet some socialists never lost sight of Paine’s meritocratic messages. E.P. Thompson saw him as a great publicist of the issues associated with freedom and wove him centrally into the narrative of his 1963 classic, The Making of the English Working Class.