A Visit with Thomas Paine - Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered!

Paine

Thomas Paine wrote a series of pamphlets between 1776 and 1783 supporting the American Revolution.  In this famous one, known for the words “These are the times that try men’s’ souls,” Paine chronicles the details of the most crucial battles of the Revolution.  The foe, the British, is personified by the personage of their military leader, General Howe.   It is great historical reading, particularly from a military standpoint!

But more important is his urging of the American people to unite to defeat the British.  General Howe was the immediate foe then.  Today, we have others.   

It is important, that in dealing with the Coronavirus and the present administration, we do not panic.  Here are Paine's words on that point. 

“'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and in the fourteenth [fifteenth] century the whole English army, after ravaging the kingdom of France, was driven back like men petrified with fear; and this brave exploit was performed by a few broken forces collected and headed by a woman, Joan of Arc. Would that heaven might inspire some Jersey maid to spirit up her countrymen, and save her fair fellow sufferers from ravage and ravishment! Yet panics, in some cases, have their uses; they produce as much good as hurt. Their duration is always short; the mind soon grows through them, and acquires a firmer habit than before. But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world.”

I wonder who are the "secret traitors" of today whom the Trumpublican party's "panic" over the 2020 election will reveal.  What are their "hidden thoughts"?

But more important is Paine's urging of the American people to unite to defeat the British.  General Howe was the immediate foe then.  Today, we have others.  Learn to deal with them, just as Paine urged in 1776. We must unite.  

But read the whole thing.  Now, you certainly have the ten minutes it will take.

All You Have to Do is to Click on These Words.

 Or just visit https://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-01.htm