Replies

I completely agree. It’s pretty hard to read his writings without coming to that conclusion. I have no idea why people quote him so much.

He deserves some credit for helping to bring awareness and focus to the problems of the colonies, but I think John Adams was right when he said that upon second consideration of Common Sense, he thought Paine as more of a tearer-down than one who could build.

And that is how I see Trump. He raised concerns that were being ignored, and he challenged political correctness in doing so. But I haven’t seen much from him in terms of concrete ideas, and what he does mention seems very authoritarian. Most of his outspoken followers seem to me to just want to burn it all down.

I think Paine was one of the original socialists, before they were called that. Funny that Mark Levin has his picture up.

I cannot speak to Paine’s later work, but there is one single quote that I wished I had read when I was doing my homework as a HS senior back during the Eisenhower Administration . . .
The assignment question was, “Do we have to do what society says?” As it turned out, the assignment’s intent was socialist propaganda (tho, obviously, the teacher would not have wanted it seen as such). But he gave away the game when he said, “We like to say ‘society’ when we mean government.” To that, the reply which I wished I had was the opening paragraph plus
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one . . .
of Common Sense.

I, Pencil is an article written in 1958 by Leonard E. Read. The burden of the article is how diffuse are the inputs to make a simple item like a pencil. Of course a particular company - Eberhard Faber, in the example instance - made the pencil. But Mr. Eberhard and Mr. Faber did not simply speak the pencil into existence; the company has to have buildings housing machinery, and workers to operate the machines. But beyond that, the Eberhard Faber workers have to have food, shelter, and normal amenities - including those required by their families.
And the same is true of the vendors who supply Eberhard Faber with the machinery they require, and all the obvious materials - wood, graphite, rubber, and the ferrule material and the enamel. All those vendors have their own equipment, workers, and supply chain. And in all cases the workers need food, shelter, and normal amenities. So although the pencil certainly does not exist without Eberhard Faber, society works together to make the pencil. And pretty much everything else.
The correct word for all the support which surrounds the total production of the pencil - or anything else - is society. Not government, note well, society.