Common Sense and Politics

Everybody knows that the world runs on Common Sense: even Thomas Paine knew that.

For instance, I think that President Joe Biden and my high-caste South Asian congresscritter Pramila Jayapal want us to believe that a $3.5 trillion "infrastructure" bill is just common sense with a "zero cost."

I agree. And the Democrats' current agenda of fighting climate change and systemic racism is just common sense.

Why? Because if it is just common sense that government is war plus loot and plunder -- where war can be international war, civil war, or just a routine election -- then the following is just common sense.

Common Sense: Climate Change is loot and plunder for the educated class, and Systemic Racism is loot and plunder for the rulers' underclass clients.

So shut up and eat your spinach.

Really, the marriage between climate change and systemic racism is a marriage made in heaven.

Except, that I would say, the following is common sense.

Common Sense: Build Back Better ends up Making Things Worse.

But back to Thomas Paine and his Common Sense. Of course, it wasn't common sense at all. Published in January 1776, it was, as La Wik quotes Gordon S. Wood, "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era." La Wik:

It was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. In proportion to the population of the colonies at that time (2.5 million), it had the largest sale and circulation of any book published in American history.

Let's quickly rehearse Common Sense from La Wik.

The first section is on the origin and design of government.

Paine related common Enlightenment theories of the state of nature to establish a foundation for republican government. Paine began the section by making a distinction between society and government and argues that government is a "necessary evil."

Well, that wouldn't be "common sense" today. Today, everyone agrees, government by an educated and evolved elite is merely common sense, rather than a "necessary evil." If you think government is a "necessary evil" you are a deplorable, a bitter clinger, and a white oppressor to boot.

I mean, if you scan the "Economics" or the "Political Science" section at your local used book store, I'd say that 75 percent of the books are all about how "we" can use government to bend the arc of history towards justice. Common sense, darling.

I know. Who is "we," Kemosabe?

The second section is on monarchy and hereditary succession.

[Paine] considers monarchy first from a biblical perspective and then from a historical perspective. He begins by arguing that since all men are equal at creation, the distinction between kings and subjects is a false one.

To hell with the Divine Right of kings, for instance. Common sense.

In the third section Paine looks at the current conflict between Britain and the colonies.

Paine examines the hostilities between England and the American colonies and argues that the best course of action is independence. Paine proposes a Continental Charter (or Charter of the United Colonies) that would be an American Magna Carta.

Nothing here but Common Sense. Right fellas, everyone down the ages was putting together Continental Charters before breakfast. Particularly in "taverns and meeting places."

Mind you, I'd say it is amazing that this 47-page book was "read aloud in taverns and meeting places." Imagine that happening today!

So, rather than merely advocating "common sense" Thomas Paine was really proposing the most radical political change in history. But hey, when you are proposing the most radical political change in history the last thing you want to do is scare people. So you tell them that your radicalism is just "common sense." Just like Joe Biden and Pramila Jayapal.

Anyway, pace Thomas Paine, I'd say that when anyone is invoking "common sense" they are trying to put one over on us, by getting us to just accept whatever it is as natural and physical, nothing to see here, move right along.

Of course, on the other hand, you should always accept what I write here on this blog as completely unexceptional and normal, something that doesn't even need discussion, but that anyone with half a brain would accept without a second thought. Common sense, really.

But the question today is whether the "F*ck Joe Biden" movement is common sense or straight-up "hate speech."

You decide.