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This is the Age of Paine
NEW YORK -- Faced with the daunting challenge of rallying a nation to the task of undoing eight years of the damage done by a president named "George" who had governed like a king named "George," Barack Obama faced the challenge of finding a founder on whom to rely.
Obama turned to good Tom Paine, the most righteously radical of the revolutionary comrades who initiated the American experiment.
Paine gave the new president -- and the country -- the language that would be needed to celebrate the end of the Bush/Cheney interregnum:
"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (the danger)."
But Paine, less a man of his time than of ours, also gave us the language for the Obama moment.
The great pamphleteer, who died 200 years ago this week, defined the word "change" more ably than any of his successors.
"(A) new area for politics is struck; a new method of thinking hath arisen," he explained in "Common Sense," his call to revolution. "All plans, proposals ... are like the almanacs of the last year; which, though proper then, are superseded and useless now."
Paine, who declared himself the first citizen of the world, anticipated Obama, a president who recognizes that to serve America in these times he must engage with the peoples -- if not always the governments -- of every country on the planet.
The founder who most ardently opposed slavery, who was himself an immigrant to and from and once again to America, who imagined making real the promise of equality, would have celebrated the political transit that was achieved last fall. It was Paine, alone among the founders, who could have imagined a United States that was capable of electing a son of Kansas and of Africa, a man whose family tree has roots that spread to Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, a constitutional scholar and author prone toward inspired rhetoric, as its president.
But Paine would have quickly reminded us that America's potential is never realized in the election of a man, or even of a Congress allied with that man.
America's potential is realized when the people, always more radical and more wise than their leaders, demand a new method of thinking in the halls of government.
It was Paine's vision, not for the 18th century but the 21st, that we honored Monday in New York City, the site of his passing two centuries to the day earlier.
In delivering the keynote for the celebration, I argued -- as I have for many years now -- that the "age of Paine," which the ever-cautious John Adams so feared, is not a thing of our past.
It is now.
This is the age of Paine.
Americans have only to realize, as Tom Paine did, that: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of the new world is at hand."
This is ever the case, ever the possibility, when we recall the revolutionary roots of the American experiment ndsh and the radical pamphleteer who called it forth.
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Show AllAs William Greider would say, it is all about more democracy!
"It was Paine, alone among the founders, who could have imagined a United States that was capable of electing a son of Kansas and of Africa, a man whose family tree has roots that spread to Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, a constitutional scholar and author prone toward inspired rhetoric, as its president."
_______________________________
And, although as far as I know the term "war criminal" was not yet a concept in Paine's day, he was doubtless also capable of imagining a United States that was capable of electing a succession of tyrants, including scholarly and eloquent multi-cultural tyrants.
That's the difference between Paine and most of his latter-day admirers.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Be advised that right wing media douche bag, Glenn Beck, is attempting to appropriate Tom Paine as a conservative idol. While there is rightful snickering by those whom have actually read Paine's works (especially those beyond "Common Sense" & "The American Crisis," for which is in the history books), Beck is using the American public's love of Cliff Notes history, or just outright lies, instead of doing its' own homework, to distort and co-opt a powerful voice from the past who's arguments are mostly valid today...and those arguments are contrary to Beck and the rest of the right wing noise machine.
Then Mr. Beck should be reminded that the American Revolution was caused by "Liberal" thinking, not conservative. Thomas Paine was more an anarchist than a revolutionary if my memory serves me, not really trusting any form of government. Later went to Europe to stir the kettle I believe.
Oh, isn't that sweet? John Nichols and The Nation Magazine continue to spread the word for their leader Obama.
Makes you wonder what this "progressive" publication is up to. I've long wondered about the extent to which the publications that are influential on the left are in fact infiltrated and controlled by right wing interests, to mislead and and disrupt any organized opposition to the status quo.
From the article:
"But Paine would have quickly reminded us that America's potential is never realized in the election of a man, or even of a Congress allied with that man.
America's potential is realized when the people, always more radical and more wise than their leaders, demand a new method of thinking in the halls of government."
Faced with the daunting challenge of rallying a nation to the task of undoing eight years of the damage done by a president named "George" . . .
Obysmal is not UNDOING anything that truly needs to be undone. His flashy, "uplifting" speeches, and how he delivers them, are the true lipstick on the American capitalist pig. Obysmal, as president and head of the Democratic party, is a man in an Armani suit and Corsini shoes standing in front of a poster of Che Guevara. His left hand is raised in a clenched fist salute. His right hand is hidden behind his back, giving all of us the finger.
Note to Mordechai Shiblikov June 9th, 2009 12:11 pm: Correction: Obama wears Hart Schaffner Marx suits (made in Chicago, for the time being) and American-made shoes. Oh, and he's not even close to Che Guevara, as you might have also noticed. But then he campaigned and is performing as a slightly left-of-center Democrat, which IS quite a change from the far-right Christopublican Dauphin from Crawford (or Dallas, these days).
I guess I'd be as mad as you are at Obama were I expecting Che Guevara and Dwight Eisenhower showed up. But since I wasn't expecting anything of the sort -- I actually read Obama's speeches and position papers, and knew his history, before the election -- I don't feel cheated.
His mastery as a politician is that he allowed many to read into his words things that were not there without correction, but then every great politician in our history has done that.
I'm not ready to jump to the conclusion that Obama will bring no major changes after four years as president -- like any good lawyer, he works in oblique approaches and lets his opponent provide the hangman's noose, as he proved in his stint as a State Senator in Illinois. In fact, one major change that he has effected is taking place before our eyes as the Republican Party dissolves into a bickering, narrow-minded, bilious copy of the Whigs, clinging to the faded past and a failed corporatist ideology as they disappear down a rat hole of their own making. Another would be that he broke the caucasian color barrier on the now unaptly-named White House.
One more thing: Anyone whom Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and the rest of the befuddled and damned hate so vehemently can't be all bad. When you have a vicious corporate blood-freak serpent like Frank Gaffney, who no doubt sleeps with a sword so that he has something to rattle should he awake from a nightmare of world peace, screeching you're a new 'Hitler,' you must be doing something right.
if Congress is functional, who holds the presidency is rather unimportant, as Congress holds the power...when none of the branches are functional, as now, and the cult of personality holds sway, you get presidents pretending to steer Congress, unConstutional lawyering, judging and lawmaking supporting, and the horror of incessant murder, rape and theft...
RichM,
I always enjoy your posts. You have a wonderful way of "keeping it real" through articulation, astute observation, and critical thought.
Sioux Rose
GRACCHUS: I second your compliments of Rich M, a very important voice in these CD discussions. If only a few politicians had his good sense, integrity, and capacity for seeing through B.S.
Save the soaring rhetoric, Obama has more in common with Edmund Burke (monarchy's apologist) than Thomas Paine (a true radical). After Paine helped inspire the common people to fight against King George, his usefulness to the new Republic waned. The same thing happened in France, as the people's revolution became a bourgeois (capitalist) revolution, Paine went from hero to pariah. He was lucky to keep his head. In the country his help was critical to launch, he died in poverty, a persona non grata.
Mr. Nichols wildly missed the mark comparing Obama to Thomas Paine. However, I do hope that our time will become "the age of Paine". We need a lot more people thinking as radical as Tom Paine would have. Only then will real democracy have a chance.
"America's potential is realized when the people, always more radical and more wise than their leaders, demand a new method of thinking in the halls of government."
Whether you think of Obama as Black or half Black, he was born that way and still is that way, no change there. The change is in the American people who elected Obama. Can the American people convince Obama to change the government to reflect all the ways in which the views of the majority have changed?
No.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Mr. Nichols forgets, perhaps conveniently, that Thomas Paine also said, "THAT GOVERNMENT IS BEST WHICH GOVERNS LEAST".
PaulfromGA June 9th, 2009 12:41 pm, that quote has also been attributed to Henry David Thoreau, as well as both Paine and Jefferson.
Dictionary of Quotes: http://www.dictionary-quotes.com/that-government-is-best-which-governs-least-henry-david-thoreau/
Thoreau also said, in June of 1839:
"That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess."
And April, 1841:
"We are as much as we see."
The applications are almost endless, even to some of the comments on this thread.
One more from Thoreau, from August, 1851, with similar echoes of meaning:
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."
After denouncing the Continental Congress for profiteering through the requisitioning for the war for independence, Paine became a persona non grata among the founding fathers. He went to France in support of its revolution. Although his opinions favored the Jacobin cause, he protested the execution of the royals arguing that the revolution had made them irrelevant. Because the Jacobins feared that the royals would become a lightning rod for aristocratic resistance uniting Europe against them, they considered Paine’s pleas for humanistic moderation to be a meddlesome betrayal in their political struggle and had him imprisoned, although he was later released.
The moment for leftist humanism has always been upon us since the publication of Common Sense, but the public has always been diverted by the actions of the moment, which have usually been shaped by the investors of the day.
If my memory of the biography serves me, Paine actually supported the Girondins of Danton, which is why he was imprisoned by the Jacobins.
The royalist John Adams, ambassador to France at the time, was content to see Paine executed. Fortunately, however, Adams was replaced by Thomas Jefferson in Paris, and Jefferson persuaded the Jacobins to release Paine.
But even Jefferson, when he became president, would not give the "atheist" (actually deist) Paine a job or any form of support, and he died in poverty. "Filthy little atheist" he was called a century later by Theodore Roosevelt.
His real crime was that he supported economic equality.
RichM writes:
"Ugh. Blurkle, glub. Does one laugh out loud at this article, or just puke? It's such totally embarrassing BS."
Amen. The Obaama Organization -- are they using drugs? electical brain-blasts? -- seems to have body-snatched another one. This crap could not POSSIBLY have been written by the real John Nichols.
I don't understand the emotional investment The Nation has in Obysmal. After four months, the arc of his administration is now quite clear.
Paine at least knew that (as today) liberty requires the spilling of the blood of the rich and powerful. If we expect the whores of congress to do ANYTHING for us other than coo, flirt, screw us, and give our money to their corporate pimps, we'll be flattened.
Nichols quotes Paine:
"The birthday of the new world is at hand."
The birthday SUIT of the New World Order is at hand, is more like it -- and His intolerably-boring and halting and long-winded "inspired rhetoric" is actually not "inspired", but calculated by committee for maximum fluff and minimum content.
obama is paine and ahmadinejad is hitler and bush is washington and putin is stalin and blair is churchill and palin is thatcher and kim jong il is kim il sung and osama used to be a founding father and romney is reagan and clinton is kennedy and baghdad is munich and 2009 is 1929.
nichols, at least have the self-respect not to swallow. cuz you sure suck.
I am all for remaking the world again; why don't we start by voting Obama out of office and replacing him with a progressive thus rendering illegitimate his bogus change we can believe in marketing schema.
That can be followed by the pretenders like Nichols constantly whitewashing the Obama Administration.
What would Paine have to say to Obama?
You can get an idea of it here:
http://thesearethetimesmagazine.com
"America's potential is realized when the people, always more radical and more wise than their leaders, demand a new method of thinking in the halls of government."
Always?
Paine never expected America to become the dumbest, fattest, laziest, greediest, most selfish and least politically active populace on Earth.
No - we are not more radical and more wise than our 'leaders,' and thinking is no longer our strong suit...
P.S. Whereas Paine presented himself as the first citizen of the world, consider this quote:
"I am not a citizen of the world," said [Newt] Gingrich during the lecture [Friday, June 5, 2009 at Hampton Roads, Virginia]. "I am a citizen of the United States because only in the United States does citizenship start with our creator. I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history. We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism."
http://www.truthout.org/060809R
Sioux Rose
CLASS ACT: Your post/Newt quote is why I spend a lot of time in this forum (and in books & articles that I write) trying to deconstruct this idea of the patriarchal Judeo-Christian God as presented to American citizens and compare its image and likeness to the war-god Mars. What Newt would like is to have the natural authoritarians, those who follow fundamentalist religions (and are taught NOT to question authority figures) to remain a reliable political block; and his innate sexism would have him quite happy with women trapped by unwanted pregnancies so that they have less time for the political and economic arenas. Yeah, give it all back to god the father, send all the boys to war to prove they're men, keep the little ladies home and barefoot and pregnant, and donate your daily labors to your elite betters.
Personally, in spite of my spirituality, I would like to see Newt roasted on a skewer the way pigs are cooked in the mountain villages of Puerto Rico. Only a few deserve such a fate, but he's on the list of the top 7.
But, Siouxrose June 9th, 2009 4:47 pm, if Newtie were actually skewered and roasted with an apple in his mouth -- and I wouldn't mind attending that barbeque myself -- the unfortunate result might be that some children or animals would innocently munch on the carcass and come down with food poisoning. We'd have to insure the pernicious Gingrich form of Swine Flu stayed out of the food chain.
Perhaps instead he could be sealed in tin and shot into space with all the remaining copies of the Contract on America piled in the rocket with him. Let the space aliens figure out what to do with him.
Sioux Rose
RSJ: I understand some are spending a lot of money to become the first space tourists; maybe CD should raise a fund to send Newt up, but only cover one way... (not round trip) and let him negotiate his return flight by arguing with SPACE.
LOL, Sioux Rose. On second thought, you're right, perhaps we shouldn't anger the Galactic Federation any more than we already have by leaving Newt on their doorstep; they might interpret it the same way a homeowner takes a flaming bag of dog poop left on the porch.
I've heard that Newtie's live speeches are as dull as a butter knife, and now he has been coronated as a 'conservative intellectual' by the cognoscenti in our Big Media because he uses the occasional ten-dollar word, flatters them endlessly, stirs empty controversy, and there's not much out there on the mental wasteland of the rightie fringe that can qualify as conscious or even human. (Not that Newt can, but they like the way he combs his hair to cover up the three sixes.)
The good news is that Newt is not very popular, even among the knuckle-draggers in the GOP base (they like the Palinator or Hucksterbee) so politically he's going nowhere. BTW, did you hear today that one-third of self-identified Republicans don't like their own party?
Neoconservative Republicans meet Tyrannosaurus Rex, another once-fearsome dinosaur who is only known these days by bleached bones preserved in dusty museums.
Sioux Rose
RSJ: I haven't had TV in more than 2 years and the saved cost (no cable) entitles me (my own personal accounting system) to a massage every month. Money well spent! In any case, I recall the C-span early morning call-in discussions where many spoke of Newt as if he owned glowing credentials, proof of his status as intellectual, the Chomsky of the right, etc. If American citizens TRULY understood the space between rhetoric and actual policies, one-third would leave BOTH parties, and then we'd have a new basis for a party OF the people. Why not a people's party? Let it absorb the greens, the independents, conservatives like Army Brat who argue for a SANE economy and no wars of empire, added to gays, those who smoke grass, and all those OFFENDED by everything that's gone on in DC lately.
Siouxrose June 11th, 2009 12:23 pm, I admit I'm addicted to some C-Span shows, as well as Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Bill Moyers, The Daily Show, Stephen Colbert and old movies. You're no doubt better off without what Harlan Ellison called the 'glass teat' but I think I'd have to decompress if I went cold turkey from cable. I read and listen to the radio when I'm working, but I like just vegging out sometimes in front of the tube, especially if there's a great old film on.
I agree: if most people were exposed to a wider variety of thought -- such as that of Chomsky -- we would be able to build a viable progressive third party, but that's in the future when the corporate stranglehold on our media lessens. As it is, rightwing media is losing ratings and ad money while more progressive programs are gaining in both, which is an encouraging sign for the future, particularly since those under 35 have so thoroughly rejected Republican neoconservatism.
Sioux Rose, though totally unrelated to this article and to this thread, I want to say that space tourism is the height of indulgence - the sort of indulgence that brought about the collapse of empires in the past - only this time, it's humanity that's under threat. There are other needs crying out for resources, so when I see people glibly talk about space tourism (I don't mean you :), I get all worked up - thinking, don't these people have any idea of the finite nature of resources, and do they really care about climate change? I'll give you the example of two billionaires: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and 'Virgin' (airline, music, etc.) founder Richard Branson - both have started companies that aim to take 'tourists' to space orbits above the earth. Why would they want to do this? Just because they can, and it would satisfy their own vanity and that of those who can pay, while burning up tons of fossil fuel, all for what? And the funny thing is, both these chaps talk about the environment!
Like I said, it's totally unrelated to what's being discussed here. Of course, one way trips don't cost that much - and don't use up as much fuel either - so that should be fine. And by the way, there's supposed to be lots of hydrocarbons (similar to natural gas) in Jupiter - I wonder if Dick Cheney would be interested in a trip there as well.
Sioux Rose
ALCYON: I agree, although isn't it possible that a wealthy person "taking the ride of their life" would have a spiritual epiphany like those that impacted the first astronauts and in seeing the blue-green sphere beneath, return to use their money to found new companies that DID give a damn? My understanding of spirituality is such that even the darkest seeming event can give rise to something positive.
Also, were we to list all the absolutely extravagant things the rich do, all those private jets would qualify, along with their huge yachts, and homes with thousands of square feet of space. The worship of excess (seen in the weight of too many US citizens and the ridiculously large vehicles they drive as Mother Nature burns with a high fever indicative of her feeling ill) is the CRIME of the 20th century and it's a direct driver of wars of resource acquisition.
From the moment the concept of private property/land ownership emerged, spiritually much from there was down hill. I add to this the co-optation of entire ecosystems, the seizing of genes under "intellectual copyright law," and the "ownership" of the female and thus birth lineage through a variety of sexist (religion-founded) belief systems. Taken together, all cheapen LIFE and by turning the priceless into tradeable commodities (with $ itself being so ridiculously inflated as to create yet a greater burden on nature and her assets to meet the numbers posed by the derivative market schemes that have been traveled around the world like lethal viruses) these protocols have literally driven the web of ecosystems human life relies upon to the brink of collapse. There are powerful parallels between the inversion of religious orders to serve Mammon (pushing the $ agenda) and Mars (pushing FOR war in 'god's' name) and the state of nature, added to that of economies (having hedged their bets on bankers who turned the entirety of world commerce into a betting casino). In short, the paradigm is collapsing...
>>>Sioux Rose wrote: ...isn't it possible that a wealthy person "taking the ride of their life" would have a spiritual epiphany like those that impacted the first astronauts and in seeing the blue-green sphere beneath...
Sioux Rose, that's an expensive and environmentally damaging way to seek enlightenment :) And there are no guarantees either...It's not the fuel used on that one ride - it's all that is used while this technology is developed and tested - which the developers would want to sell to as many "seekers" as possible...
>>>Also, were we to list all the absolutely extravagant things the rich do, all those private jets would qualify, along with their huge yachts, and homes with thousands of square feet of space.
Absolutely. No question. :)
>>>In short, the paradigm is collapsing...
Your last paragraph lists all that's wrong with the present system. I picked "space tourism" because it's yet to become mainstream, and there's a certain mindlessness when people talk about it - as if it's something great that we all can look forward to. There's also a certain arrogance on the part of the developers - because they have the money, now they can do what they please with it - while sowing the seeds for more waste.
Alcyon June 11th, 2009 4:19 pm, I have read that various inventors are developing hydrogen rocket engines which emit only water as a byproduct and are cheap to use and not deleterious to the environment. How far away from production these engines are I don't know, but at least they are in the testing phase of such technology. Once in space, a craft could easily be powered by solar collector umbrellas (in fact some satellites already are) which converts light particles to energy. Within 50 years, and probably much less, I think space travel will be cheaper and not damaging to the environment.
RSJ, I didn't really mean to distract from the main topic :) But since you brought up hydrogen, I want to point out - yes, when burned, hydrogen emits only water. However, hydrogen DOES NOT occur as such in nature (in any usable amounts), and producing hydrogen is VERY energy intensive, and currently, also emits lots of carbon dioxide when hydrocarbons are used as starting material. Theoretically, hydrogen could be produced using solar power from water - but the numbers are not economical. And the first priority to use any such solar power would be for "bread and butter" requirements. Solar power should only REPLACE fossil fuel - not supplement it while fossil fuel continues to be burned. And I am not against space travel - for exploration on behalf of mankind. I am only against space tourism in the current situation - it is nothing more than an exercise in vanity - IMO.
Alcyon June 11th, 2009 11:06 pm, they're working on that process, too, converting the hydrogen in water to a hydrogen fuel which then becomes water again, with little harm to the environment. But I agree with you -- there are many energy problems that need to be solved here on the ground that should come before sending toffy-nosed twits with more money than brains on a vacation in low orbit -- unless, of course, they plan to stay there, in which case it may be worth it.
Compare Obama to Paine? Yikes!
Paine has been swept under history's rug due to his disputation of Christianity, think Age of Reason.
Paine thought it arrogant to force civil government on future generations. It is time to think anew.
I offer a modest set of edits, in caps, in the second version:
"Paine, who declared himself the first citizen of the world, anticipated Obama, a president who recognizes that to serve America in these times he must engage with the peoples"
"ORWELL, who declared himself A DEFINER OF HYPOCRISY AND DECEPTION, anticipated Obama, a president who recognizes that to SUPPORT THE CORPORATE TOTALITARIAN REGIME in these times he must DECEIVE the peoples"
It is a matter of the perception of the intentions of President Obama.
An intention is a non-completed part of a plan. Obama's plan, if we listen to his rhetoric not-too-carefully, is to move America in a progressive direction.
However, if we listen to his rhetoric very carefully (like Chomsky, Hedges, RichM, and many others writing and blogging here at CD) *and* watch his actual policies in action, his intentions are to preserve the corporate regime we've endured since about 1980, and the militarism of the US government which dates to at least the invasion of Florida by General Jackson in 1818, and Congress's failure to condemn it on February 8, 1819.
The fate of the nation, and perhaps the world lies in understanding and acting on the intentions of Obama, his administration and the non-progressive Democrats in Congress. (There are true progressives in Congress.)