Thomas Paine's "Common Sense"

Thomas Paine was evidently not very happy about the English government. Written by Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” expresses very clearly how corrupt Paine believed the government to be. After reading what he had to say, I must say that I agree with him. He had some very strong points; a lot of his ideas had been expressed before in previous writings I had read, but he expressed them in a way that was a little bit stronger and made me believe them more. Thomas Paine does a great job in expressing his distaste towards the British government. There are some points where he rambles or where he does not really make any sense at all, but when I did understand what he was saying he made his point of view seem very logical and believable.

One of Thomas Paine’s arguments was that the British government was way too complex. He said that he would have preferred a much simpler government, as it could have been run much more efficiently. Paine states, “But the constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part the fault lies, some will say in one and some in another, and every political physician will advise a different medicine” (Paine). Although this sentence is very long and complex, and the reader might have to read it slowly and more than once as I had to do, it actually makes a lot of sense. Basically, he was saying that since the government is so complicated, when something goes wrong, no one knows who to turn to, who to blame, and what to change. Therefore, the problem never really gets solved. I think this is a very valid point.

Paine also was not very satisfied with how the King fit in with the government. The King was issued power, but was supposed to have people look over his rulings and decisions. However, he was allowed final judgment, which basically means that the idea of having people watch over his doings is pointless. Paine words it way better than I can when he says, “But as the same constitution which gives the commons a power to check the king by withholding the supplies, gives afterwards the king a power to check the commons, by empowering him to reject their other bills; it again supposes that the king is wiser than those whom it has already supposed to be wiser than him. A mere absurdity!” (Paine). Again, this sentence written by Paine is probably a bit too wordy and could have been reduced to a much simple sentence that would have been much easier to understand. However, it does have a solid point and he presents his case very well. By reading this, I think one would easily believe what he was writing.

The way Paine states his argument is very clever; he writes in a way that expresses his views as being completely correct and the mere idea of him being wrong is just too silly of a statement to even question. While sometimes this writing style can get annoying because of the writer seeming arrogant or overly confident, it often is actually very effective at making someone believe your point of view. Paine was very efficient at making others see his ideas exactly how he wanted them to. After reading this article, I was definitely convinced that the English government was a bit ridiculous and corrupt.

WORKS CITED

Paine, Thomas. “Common Sense.” Archiving Early America. Online. 18 Oct. 2010.