Thomas Paine – Rights of Man (1792)
Political Tract – 270 pages – my copy (1985; paperback) bought for £1 from the Comic Book Exchange in Notting Hill, London, in 2007
- 5 nods out of 5 -
We’ve all heard of those large, looming figures that claimed American independence from the British crown. Washington, Jefferson and the much cited Hancock; however, there is one man who for much of the past two hundred years has been forgotten. That man is Tom Paine. Recent decades have seen an increase in his popularity; historians have re-enacted him, novelists have spoke for him, whilst Bob Dylan rhymed him (see track two on John Wesley Harding).
This revivial rests on Paine’s influential works, of which Rights of Man arguably made the largest impact. It was written in the beginnings of the French Revolution, before it turned bloody and Napoleon arrived on the scene; Paine’s raison d’etre to contest the claims of another spokesman upon the revolution, Edmund Burke (though a man with reforming ambitions, Burke was, at heart, conservative and a believer in monarchy and tradition). In the words of Eric Foner, ‘the Burke-Paine debate was the classic confrontation between tradition and innovation, hierarchy and equality, order and revolution’.
Paine strikes at the heart of tradion, attacking the right of monarchy: ‘A French bastard landing with an armed banditti and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original’ (p.9). The insults heaped upon Paine provoke laughter today: ‘I know a place in America called Point-no-Point; because as you proceed along the shore, gay and flowery as Mr Burke’s language, it continually recedes and presents itself at a distance before you; but when you have got as far as you can go, there is no point at all. Just thus it is with Mr Burke’s three hundred and fifty-six pages’ (p.49). These wonderful, biting comments never desist; Paine always adhering to his belief that Burke's words 'is darkness attempting to illuminate light' (p.45). The language remains fresh and readable to us today; one of the reason's for Paine's success was the accessability of his works, a lesson continued by other Paine adorers, such as William Cobbett in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Yet Rights of Man is much more than a continuance of an argument. Paine believes in revolution and the good it can bring to the people; always fighting for progress and the welfare of all mankind; as he boasts: 'my country is the world, and my religion is to do good' (p.228). In the second part of the book, he sets out a possible welfare system to help the poorest of the country - one of the first of writers to commit such a vision to print.
Hindsight now shows Paine to be naive in his blinkered support of revolution. Little was he to know that it would turn sour and bloody as heads were sliced from bodies, while his predications of the future ('I do not believe that monarchy and aristocracy will continue seven years longer in any of the enlightened countries in Europe’ (p.156)) were wide off the mark; the monarchies of the world continuing, if with their feathers clipped, in the twenty-first century.
Although his influence may wax and wane, it will never be extinguished. Paine admirably stated, 'it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out' (p.156). Sadly, the world could use more Tom Paine's today; those who will adhere to his commitment of helping manking.
Political Tract – 270 pages – my copy (1985; paperback) bought for £1 from the Comic Book Exchange in Notting Hill, London, in 2007
- 5 nods out of 5 -
We’ve all heard of those large, looming figures that claimed American independence from the British crown. Washington, Jefferson and the much cited Hancock; however, there is one man who for much of the past two hundred years has been forgotten. That man is Tom Paine. Recent decades have seen an increase in his popularity; historians have re-enacted him, novelists have spoke for him, whilst Bob Dylan rhymed him (see track two on John Wesley Harding).
This revivial rests on Paine’s influential works, of which Rights of Man arguably made the largest impact. It was written in the beginnings of the French Revolution, before it turned bloody and Napoleon arrived on the scene; Paine’s raison d’etre to contest the claims of another spokesman upon the revolution, Edmund Burke (though a man with reforming ambitions, Burke was, at heart, conservative and a believer in monarchy and tradition). In the words of Eric Foner, ‘the Burke-Paine debate was the classic confrontation between tradition and innovation, hierarchy and equality, order and revolution’.
Paine strikes at the heart of tradion, attacking the right of monarchy: ‘A French bastard landing with an armed banditti and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original’ (p.9). The insults heaped upon Paine provoke laughter today: ‘I know a place in America called Point-no-Point; because as you proceed along the shore, gay and flowery as Mr Burke’s language, it continually recedes and presents itself at a distance before you; but when you have got as far as you can go, there is no point at all. Just thus it is with Mr Burke’s three hundred and fifty-six pages’ (p.49). These wonderful, biting comments never desist; Paine always adhering to his belief that Burke's words 'is darkness attempting to illuminate light' (p.45). The language remains fresh and readable to us today; one of the reason's for Paine's success was the accessability of his works, a lesson continued by other Paine adorers, such as William Cobbett in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Yet Rights of Man is much more than a continuance of an argument. Paine believes in revolution and the good it can bring to the people; always fighting for progress and the welfare of all mankind; as he boasts: 'my country is the world, and my religion is to do good' (p.228). In the second part of the book, he sets out a possible welfare system to help the poorest of the country - one of the first of writers to commit such a vision to print.
Hindsight now shows Paine to be naive in his blinkered support of revolution. Little was he to know that it would turn sour and bloody as heads were sliced from bodies, while his predications of the future ('I do not believe that monarchy and aristocracy will continue seven years longer in any of the enlightened countries in Europe’ (p.156)) were wide off the mark; the monarchies of the world continuing, if with their feathers clipped, in the twenty-first century.
Although his influence may wax and wane, it will never be extinguished. Paine admirably stated, 'it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out' (p.156). Sadly, the world could use more Tom Paine's today; those who will adhere to his commitment of helping manking.
