Paine's insight about monarchs being cut off from critical information applies way beyond hereditary systems. I've seen how even elected leaders get insulated by handlers who filter bad news, creating the same dangerous feedback loops. The connection to modern free speech erosion is sharp, when self-censorship becomes the norm people stop correcting power before catastrophic failures happen instead of after.
I admire all our Founders said and did to establish our great Nation. The difficulty is viewing what was accomplished from the viewpoint of 250 years later. Discarding the monarchy as a method of governing was true progress, but only decades and centuries later did our nation begin to chip away at all the other inequalities which remained for those who were not white male landowners.
Regarding censorship of mail during WW2. I kind of get it. You don't want the enemy knowing where you are going. I know the following is true because I read the mail my father sent to my mother. I don't know if you have know Salerno Butter cookies. My father was part of the invasion of Salerno Italy.. He wrote my mother I can't tell you where we are going but "Mommy, I want a Salerno butter cookie!". That was the tag line to the commercial for the cookies. Amazing that made it through the censors
Thank you for the entry, and a big thanks for your live stream a couple of nights ago. It's always nice to listen to folks with a whole lot more subject knowledge than my own.
Lindsay - I admire your writing and research. However, we do come from two different sides of the political spectrum. Sen. Kelly's partisan political ad - was akin to yelling FIRE in a crowded theater. He implied - as a United States Senator and retired Military Officer that the President of the United States was issuing ILLEGAL ORDERS - which the Commander-In-Chief has not done. When Sen. Kelly was pressed which order was ILLEGAL - nothing was given as a example. The Military Code of Justice is there to prevent partisan figures in the Military from givinng false statements. Sen. Kelly will have to face that Justice. Lindsay - lets stick to HISTORY and not Partisan Politics.
Do you not thing invading a county when we are not under attack is not illegal. Or killing men in fishing boats with no evidence that they are carrying drugs is not illegal. Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the Commander in Chief clause, states that "[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States." There is certainly debate just how much power he should have as commander in chief. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commander_in_chief_powers#:~:text=Article%20II%20Section%202%20of,Service%20of%20the%20United%20States.%22
You saying that the President has NOT done anything illegal (unless you are the jurist ruling on the case) is zero different from Kelly saying it. So you’re partisan I get it. But let’s leave determination as f legality where it belongs- in the courts. Why can’t everyone with an ax to grind just shut the f**k up for a change.
Well written and in a way hope inspiring. There may be some changes that need to be made in order to have the ability to "make the world again" as our contemporary society seems to face constraints to doing so that are similar to the ones Paine's faced. Paine wrote Common Sense for a society that imagined it was free to “begin the world over again”, yet was in fact hemmed in by undesirable institutional structures, the Crown's system concentrated authority, monopolized decision-making, and deliberately naturalized dependencies while presenting itself as order itself.
Our situation is structurally similar. We live inside a deeply centralized, technocratic, and managerial order that is not called a monarchy but functions in similar ways with authority and decision making kept distant, opaque, and effectively insulated from popular control; economic life is organized through concentrated capital and credentialed hierarchies; political participation is reduced to ritual affirmation rather than real access to decision-making power.
Like Paine’s world, we face hard constraints, and like his world its not because alternatives arent possible, but because the current system has hollowed out the intermediate institutions, local capital discretion, federated parties, legal and regulatory variability, civic associations, regional and local policy variability, etc., etc. that make things possible
Free speech requires a lot of tolerance and at least some sense of responsibility in those serving their audience. Tolerance seems to be lacking. Indeed the party that claims to be conservative seems hell-bent on shutting down the speech they disagree with, which is decidedly un-conservative from the perspective of American political values. And, the party that claims to support liberal American freedoms tends to silence and ostracize those that purport ideas contrary to their idea of acceptable speech. Meanwhile, major information outlets seem to take no responsibility for the accuracy of their reporting. So called news outlets report verifiable falsehoods as fact and seem more focused on telling their audience how to perceive and feel about the content they choose to air, rather than simply providing credible information. It is impossible for me to imagine any single message like Payne’s resonating with Americans today or even being seen by most all Americans like his was in 1776. What does that say about America today and our current “Information Age”? I have no answers.
Paine's insight about monarchs being cut off from critical information applies way beyond hereditary systems. I've seen how even elected leaders get insulated by handlers who filter bad news, creating the same dangerous feedback loops. The connection to modern free speech erosion is sharp, when self-censorship becomes the norm people stop correcting power before catastrophic failures happen instead of after.
I admire all our Founders said and did to establish our great Nation. The difficulty is viewing what was accomplished from the viewpoint of 250 years later. Discarding the monarchy as a method of governing was true progress, but only decades and centuries later did our nation begin to chip away at all the other inequalities which remained for those who were not white male landowners.
33 members of the Convention did not sign the Constitution and it was barely ratified.
Regarding censorship of mail during WW2. I kind of get it. You don't want the enemy knowing where you are going. I know the following is true because I read the mail my father sent to my mother. I don't know if you have know Salerno Butter cookies. My father was part of the invasion of Salerno Italy.. He wrote my mother I can't tell you where we are going but "Mommy, I want a Salerno butter cookie!". That was the tag line to the commercial for the cookies. Amazing that made it through the censors
Thank you for the entry, and a big thanks for your live stream a couple of nights ago. It's always nice to listen to folks with a whole lot more subject knowledge than my own.
THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A society built for people, not predators.
We are at our best when we invest in each other.
We are at our worst when we abandon the vulnerable.
This manifesto is how we return to the common good.
I. DIGNITY AND JUSTICE
1. Release the Epstein files — full transparency, no exceptions.
2. Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who enabled his corruption.
3. No federal office for any convicted felon.
4. End the weaponization of the justice system against the poor, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities.
II. DEMOCRACY THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
1. Abolish the Electoral College — one person, one vote.
2. Abolish ICE — replace it with humane immigration policy that honors human rights.
3. Ban gerrymandering with a standardized national apportionment method.
4. Two-term limits for every elected office.
5. Mandatory retirement at 70 for all elected officials.
6. Paper ballots only — end the era of hackable voting machines.
III. AN ECONOMY THAT SERVES PEOPLE
1. Restore 1950s-style progressive tax rates — when America was prosperous and fair.
2. Overturn Citizens United — corporations are not people.
3. Eliminate the Social Security payroll cap and tax capital gains for Social Security contributions.
4. $25 minimum wage indexed to inflation.
5. Medicare for All, one unified system — no A/B/C/D maze.
6. Congress receives Medicare, not boutique private insurance.
IV. WORKERS, CREATIVES, AND PUBLIC SERVANTS
1. Big pay raises for social workers, teachers, librarians, artists, and cultural workers — the people who actually hold society together.
2. Universal childcare — because families are the foundation of the nation.
3. Free public university education.
4. Full forgiveness of all student debt.
V. CLEAN GOVERNMENT
1. Root out corruption at every level, starting at the top.
2. Full financial transparency for every elected official, appointee, and senior bureaucrat.
3. Ban lobbying for former officeholders for life.
VI. THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
We choose a country that values:
• Compassion over cruelty
• Community over greed
• Truth over propaganda
• Shared prosperity over billionaire hoarding
• Democracy over minority rule
• Human dignity over corporate profit
We choose a nation where the common good is not a slogan, but the organizing principle of public life.
And we refuse to apologize for demanding better.
Lindsay - I admire your writing and research. However, we do come from two different sides of the political spectrum. Sen. Kelly's partisan political ad - was akin to yelling FIRE in a crowded theater. He implied - as a United States Senator and retired Military Officer that the President of the United States was issuing ILLEGAL ORDERS - which the Commander-In-Chief has not done. When Sen. Kelly was pressed which order was ILLEGAL - nothing was given as a example. The Military Code of Justice is there to prevent partisan figures in the Military from givinng false statements. Sen. Kelly will have to face that Justice. Lindsay - lets stick to HISTORY and not Partisan Politics.
Do you not thing invading a county when we are not under attack is not illegal. Or killing men in fishing boats with no evidence that they are carrying drugs is not illegal. Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the Commander in Chief clause, states that "[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States." There is certainly debate just how much power he should have as commander in chief. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commander_in_chief_powers#:~:text=Article%20II%20Section%202%20of,Service%20of%20the%20United%20States.%22
You saying that the President has NOT done anything illegal (unless you are the jurist ruling on the case) is zero different from Kelly saying it. So you’re partisan I get it. But let’s leave determination as f legality where it belongs- in the courts. Why can’t everyone with an ax to grind just shut the f**k up for a change.
Well written and in a way hope inspiring. There may be some changes that need to be made in order to have the ability to "make the world again" as our contemporary society seems to face constraints to doing so that are similar to the ones Paine's faced. Paine wrote Common Sense for a society that imagined it was free to “begin the world over again”, yet was in fact hemmed in by undesirable institutional structures, the Crown's system concentrated authority, monopolized decision-making, and deliberately naturalized dependencies while presenting itself as order itself.
Our situation is structurally similar. We live inside a deeply centralized, technocratic, and managerial order that is not called a monarchy but functions in similar ways with authority and decision making kept distant, opaque, and effectively insulated from popular control; economic life is organized through concentrated capital and credentialed hierarchies; political participation is reduced to ritual affirmation rather than real access to decision-making power.
Like Paine’s world, we face hard constraints, and like his world its not because alternatives arent possible, but because the current system has hollowed out the intermediate institutions, local capital discretion, federated parties, legal and regulatory variability, civic associations, regional and local policy variability, etc., etc. that make things possible
Free speech requires a lot of tolerance and at least some sense of responsibility in those serving their audience. Tolerance seems to be lacking. Indeed the party that claims to be conservative seems hell-bent on shutting down the speech they disagree with, which is decidedly un-conservative from the perspective of American political values. And, the party that claims to support liberal American freedoms tends to silence and ostracize those that purport ideas contrary to their idea of acceptable speech. Meanwhile, major information outlets seem to take no responsibility for the accuracy of their reporting. So called news outlets report verifiable falsehoods as fact and seem more focused on telling their audience how to perceive and feel about the content they choose to air, rather than simply providing credible information. It is impossible for me to imagine any single message like Payne’s resonating with Americans today or even being seen by most all Americans like his was in 1776. What does that say about America today and our current “Information Age”? I have no answers.