Sunday, January 2, 2022

Thomas Paine: A historian's oral biography



C-Span broadcast an excellent oral biography of Thomas Paine (born in England and migrated to the US) and some Q&A after the talk. The broadcast time is 1 hour 24 minutes. 

One example of Paine’s radical influence was published in the ~46 page pamphlet Common Sense (1776). The historian, Richard Bell, argues that Common Sense was necessary for the American revolution. American colonist’s grievances were serious but not focused on revolution until Paine published the pamphlet. That alone was a history-changing event. 

Common Sense was a masterpiece of propaganda that fomented a necessary American desire for revolution based on crackpot reasoning, but supported by a brilliant sleight of hand. The key rhetorical trick, among a few others, was to not provide a rationale for American revolution. Instead, Paine shifted the burden of proof for the English to justify their rule over the colonies. Paine make crackpottery seem logical and incontrovertibly self-evident. 

In addition, Paine published other works and essays including the highly influential The Rights of Man (1791) and The Age of Reason (1795). He also wrote the now-obscure work Agrarian Justice (1797), which is the first modern articulation of what is now called the welfare state and how to pay for it.

Paine was brutally blunt in his writings, and it cost him dearly. He was no diplomat. By the end of his life had offended most or nearly all major politicians in America, England and France. He viciously attacked George Washington in a letter, which went a long way to making him hated among most Americans. He went from patriotic hero to a hated outcast in the US. Since he had already fled to France, the English Crown tried him in absentia for treason and exiled him for life for writing and publishing The Rights of Man while he was in London. Eventually the French arrested him and put him in jail for the crime of suggesting that the French king’s life be spared after the French Revolution. Before the French executed him, the US Ambassador to France got Paine released to US custody.


Incredible propaganda
What is remarkably striking about Paine was the power of his political propaganda. The enemies that Paine made as he dropped his bombs onto the status quo responded with outrageous lies and viciousness that makes modern American radical right propaganda seem almost civil and rational. Almost. This guy knew how to make powerful people very angry. The subtle power of Paine’s prose arguably at least matched the most sophisticated propaganda any time after his death in 1809. That is remarkable, especially since he was self-taught. He was not an elite and became known only after he came into his own based on his political writings.

If you have the time and don't know much about Paine, this is well worth it. It sheds light on the psychological and propaganda origins of the Revolutionary War. It also helps reveal and put the tactics of political propaganda in a different context and time.

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