“NO COMMON SENSE”©
By Phillip Parrish with John Wasik
In a little over two centuries, we have come full circle. Our taxes are out of control, our government is no longer representing the common man, the original constitution would not be recognized if read by the founding fathers and a modern large standing army comprised of bureaucrats, special agents and regulators has been created to rule over the American people. Federal courts have declared state governments subservient to the central government. The Bill of Rights has been altered in the name of national security. Before condemning the government today, knowing how mistakes of the past will provide answers for our current dilemmas.
We present to the reader a side-by-side comparison of the original work of Thomas Paine in “Common Sense” with an updated reference to the present state of affairs in the United States.
To quote Thomas Paine: In the progress of politics, as in the common occurrences of life, we are not only apt to forget the ground we have traveled over, but frequently neglect to gather up experience as we go. We expend, if I may so say, the knowledge of every day on the circumstances that produce it, and journey on in search of new matter and new refinements: but as it is pleasant and sometimes useful to look back, even to the first periods of infancy, and trace the turns and windings through which we have passed, so we may likewise derive many advantages by halting a while in our political career, and taking a review of the wondrous complicated labyrinth of little more than yesterday. [From The Crisis No. 3]
It is time to reassert America’s independence and detach ourselves from foreign influences. We need a second Declaration of Independence to save our beloved country. God bless America yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Just as certain notes matter to the creation of a score, words make up the assertion that people speak out of frustration for the longing to set free the soul. They wish for liberation not for the time at hand, but for generations to come. What went wrong then tells us what is wrong today. By learning principles of No Common Sense, we can take revolutionary steps into the future.
America finds itself today in the role of the enforcer of the New Order. We’ve gone from national defense to policing the world for the New Order. “We have troops stationed in 144 countries.” [From The Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine January 14, 2007 in the article: Where America Leads the World (and where we do not)]
Paine, along with the Founding Fathers, suggested, “…war is uncertain, neither do the expressions mean any thing; for this continent would never suffer itself to be drained of inhabitants, to support the British arms in either Asia, Africa, or Europe.” [Common Sense, page 37].
“Common sense will tell us, that the power which hath endeavoured to subdue us, is of all others the most improper to defend us. Conquest may be effected under the pretence of friendship; and ourselves after a long and brave resistance, be at last cheated into slavery. And if her ships are not to be admitted into our harbours, I would ask, how is she to protect us? A navy three or four thousand miles off can be of little use, and on sudden emergencies, none at all. Wherefore, if we must hereafter protect ourselves, why not do it for ourselves?” [Common Sense, p 53]
Today we find our military is extended around the globe to provide security for the global economy, instead of America’s national defense and to protect foreign companies at the expense of jobs in the United States. The unemployed US Steelworkers’ sons and daughters are serving in the military policing a corporate empire worldwide at taxpayers’ expense. The code of the businessman says, never use your own money.
Paine wrote, “It is a matter worthy of observation, that the more a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are. In military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the modems: and the reason is evident, for trade being the consequence of population, men become too much absorbed thereby to attend to anything else. Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defense. And history sufficiently informs us, that the bravest achievements were always accomplished in the non-age of a nation. With the increase of commerce, England hath lost its spirit. The city of London, notwithstanding its numbers, submits to continued insults with the patience of a coward. The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to venture. The rich are in general slaves to fear, and submit to courtly power with the trembling duplicity of a Spaniel.” [Common Sense, p 53]
Does this quote fit in?
“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the US since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933.
