Crossposted at
The Next Agenda and
The Daily Kos
As you may know, I was in England the last week of June. As I wandered around the neighbourhood around the British Museum, I came across a charicature in a shop window. I immediately thought about how I could share this with my fellow bloggers.
It shows Thomas Paine, one of the heroes of the American Revolution. He is someone who has inspired many Americans, as well as many bloggers. Here is one of my favourite quotes of his:
"He who would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression.
For if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
It's kind of a more muscular version of the Golden Rule.
As I was preparing this article I did some research on Paine. I was surprised to find that he did not emigrate, (with the assistance of Benjamin Franklin) to the colonies from his native England until the end of 1774. But he went knowing he wanted change.
A tailor and exciseman in England, he came into his own as a political propagandist in the months leading up to the start of the American Revolution. Soon after he arrived in Pennsylvania he started work as a journalist, certainly the equivalent of today's bloggers, given the style of writing at the time. He wrote Common Sense and The American Crisis, during these years. Works still read and admired today.
It was his efforts to build a subscription list to feed the soldiers that many cite as the reason the whole thing lasted long enough for the French to come in with supporting supplies; an army does run on its stomach after all.
He got it going not just with his words but also with every penny he had.
After the war he turned his sights to other things until he left for Europe in 1787. He was involved in the philosophical discussion of the day in both France and England. However much he opposed the existing political structures of those two countries he also opposed the factions who wanted to (and did) execute the King and Queen of France. He spent 11 months in prison in France. During his imprisonment he wrote The Age of Reason.
That's where this charicature comes in. It was printed in 1791, after America had achieved its independence.
As you can see here, the image sets out to mock, not praise Paine. Contrary to the dignified image that comes up if you google Paine, it shows him, long jawed and slovenly, wearing a French cockade, taking the measure of the Crown.
The words on the image are as follows:
Humbly dedicated to the Jacobine Clubs of France & England!!! by common Sense
"These are your Gods, O Israel!"
"Fathom & a half! Fathom & a half! Poor Tom!"
eh! mercy upon me! that's more by half than my poor Measure will ever be able to reach! - Lord! Lord! I wish I had a bit of the stay tape or Buckram which I youst to Cabbage when I was prentice, to lengthen it out; _ well, well, who could ever have thought it, that I who have served seven years as an apprentice, & afterwards worked Four Years as a journeyman to a Master Taylor, then followd the business of an Exiseman as much longer, should not be able to take the dimensions of this Bauble?"For what is a Crown but a Bauble we may see in the Tower for sixpence a piece? -well, altho it may be too large for a taylor to take Measure of, there's one Comfort, he may make mouths at it, & call it as many names as he pleases!_and yet, Lord, Lord, I should like to make it a Yankee doodle night Cap & Breeches, if it were not so damned large or I had stuff enough.
Ah! if I could once do that, I would soon stitch up the mouth of that Barnacled Edmond from making any more Reflections upon the Flints_& so Flints and Liberty forever & damn the dungs (illegible)
"THE RIGHTS OF MAN; or TOMMY PAINE, the little American Taylor, taking the Measure of the CROWN, for a new Pair of [illegible] Breeches
Here is the image of man who wrote such eloquent words as "these are times that try men's souls", who marched and fought in battle. Who put his money where his mouth was, reduced back to a silly little tailor. Someone easy to dismiss and with thoughts and concerns unworthy of serious consideration.
Isn't that the struggle we are facing today as bloggers on the political scene? We haven't enjoined in physical battle yet, only a war of words, but are we willing to fight for our ideas? Will we cave in, if mocked by others?
Today we face scorn and belittlement, not starvation and freezing in the wilderness. We face the massive force of corporate owned media ranked against us, determined to nullify our voices.
We are here because we believe the world hangs in the balance. That we stand at a crossroads.
The options are before us -- a better world for all or at least most and those who come after us, or a better world for a few, for a time.
We know that they will throw all they can at us in order to keep the power and wealth they have amassed and we are undaunted. Undaunted but mostly untested.
But it is a hot summer's day. Time for the beach and relaxation. Will we still be here when the winter winds howl?
Will you be a winter soldier?