Common Sense 861PaiNE, THomaS Common Sense
(1776)
Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas
Paine during the American Revolution. Widely
regarded as the most important pamphlet of its time,
it inspired the American people to make a stand for
their own independence and fight against tyranny. It
also helped shift the mood from reconciliation with
Great Britain to a total break, which many colonists
welcomed and others feared.
The pamphlet is divided into four sections.
Like many fellow Enlightenment thinkers, Paine is
interested in tracing the origin of society in order
to determine answers to current political situations.
He first suggests that there is a natural tendency for
human beings to gather together for the purpose of
survival. Then, because of the abuse of political
powers, the monarchy’s hereditary succession is vali-
dated and becomes the seed of all political evils. To
remedy it, Paine advocates that everyone participate
in general affairs for the betterment of the society.
He sees the American people as being under the
yoke of British rule and therefore lacking the ability
to make decisions for themselves. It is obvious that
he wants not only an independent country but also a
society whose members can think freely and develop
a strong sense of community. After all, this is only
“commonsensical.”
Reading through the pamphlet, one will discover
that this is by no means just an “instruction manual”
on how to win the war. Rather, it is filled with
Enlightenment principles that aim at creating a fair
government and an independent mind.
Huang-Hua Chen
communIty in Common Sense
Where does community start and end? What does
it include and exclude? What does it mean when we
say “a sense of community”? These seem to be the
questions that Thomas Paine grapples with when
trying to imagine an American nation. At times, he
wants to include everyone; but other times, he urges
a severance from the British monarchy, likening
Britain to “brutes” that “devour” their young. While
he wants to raise a sense of pride by emphasizing
the colonies’ uniqueness, he also constantly refers to
Europe as the cultural origin and seeks to establish
a cosmopolitan community. In a sense, community
unites and divides, as one can easily observe from
the two opposite directions that Paine’s political
pamphlet takes on: It calls for a civil society based
on “common sense,” yet it does so by distinguishing
between friends and foes.
The difficulty that Paine faces probably derives
from the definition of community, as it can extend
to so many different social groups. He himself gives
an interesting observation in the section entitled
“Thoughts on the Present State of American
Affairs” that people will naturally associate with
those around them despite different backgrounds or
nationalities. Later, when discussing the Continen-
tal Charter, he seems to favor local representatives
from each region. Paine clearly tries to establish
this line of thinking right from the beginning: He
begins the pamphlet by positing that the origin of
society starts with geographical isolation. He then
states that “in this state of natural liberty, society
will be their first thought.” Community, in this
sense, suggests a common geographical background.
Therefore, people from the same area should under-
stand each other, as it is “common sense” for them
to cooperate with each other. It is not difficult to
see how this argument is effective during the time
of the American War of Independence. Paine’s
sense of community is not limited to geographi-
cal differences. At the beginning of the work, he
identifies two kinds of communities: the society
and government. The former unites people’s affec-
tion, whereas the latter often becomes the source
of evil; Paine supplies brutal examples of the Brit-
ish monarchy. His sense of community, therefore,
has to be a project of affection, as he continues to
emphasize the fact that people identify with each
other based on moral imperatives, not calculating
self-interest or a nationalist agenda. He states that
“thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would form
our newly arrived emigrants into society, the recip-
rocal blessing of which would supercede, and render
the obligations of law and government unneces-
sary while they remained perfectly just to each
other.” For Paine, it is almost an obligation that
people form communities based on the European
Enlightenment principles of freedom, reason, and
independence.