mjvilardi

21 November 2006 - Check out this great article about Thomas Paine in The New Yorker. He was a “founding father” whose ideas are as provocative today as they were in the 18th Century. His works were widely read, but some booksellers in England were jailed for selling them, and Paine was persecuted and prosecuted for writing them. With fine logic and well-turned phrases he skewered not only monarchy, but slavery and religion. From The Age of Reason:

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavouring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
But . . . I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.

These views made him something of a pariah in the country he helped liberate. In his later years he was reviled as a godless drunk, lunatic, and lost soul. Founding Father John Adams (always jealous of Paine’s popularity) called Common Sense “a poor, ignorant, Mailicious, short-sighted, Crapulous Mass.” Years later Teddy Roosevelt would call him a “filthy little atheist.” Yet in our own time Paine has made a comeback, and is regularly (if carefully) quoted by conservatives and liberals alike.

The same (16 October 2006) issue of The New Yorker contains a delightful profile of the crunchy, complex Christopher Hitchens. Sadly, it’s not posted online, but well worth looking for if you enjoy Hitch. This issue reinforces my affection for the magazine; if you only subscribe to one print mag, The New Yorker is the one.