The Hobo Philosopher | Rights of Man (Dover Thrift Editions)

Every generation and age must be as free to act for itself | Rights of Man (Dover Thrift Editions) | Thomas Paine

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	• Rights of Man (Dover Thrift Editions) Thomas Paine Dover Publications, 1999 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 12 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

fair

well, i finally got around to reading thomas paine's "rights of man". his sentences, like in "common sense" are run on in nature. but, to be fair, many writers of that period wrote quite lengthy compound - complex sentences. i found a number of errors, no, not the changes in language over 200 years. basically, i found nearly all of his ideas to be reflections or regurgitations of rousseau or hobbes or any of the other great political philosophers of the era and that which preceded it. the feature, perhaps unique and thus most worthy of reading paine's work, is the combination of logic with his flair for passion and motivation of the people to unite and insist on government's respecting their rights. written after the united states bill of rights had been penned, it clearly wasn't an effort aimed at the people of the united states. by the time this book was written, the people of france were beginning to get restless and beg for democracy and civil rights. paine, having moved to france, might have had some contribution in implanting the seeds of democracy in france. the conversation of the book wanders. it is composed of numerous documents and writings. overall, in order for the reader to capture the flavor of the unrest of the day, this is a well worthwhile book.

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The Hobo Philosopher

In reading Tom Payne it is best to go right to the horse's mouth. Don't buy a volume with a modern day author's interpretation. Tom expresses himself clearly, logically and in up to date readable language. He needs no interpreter. Read what he has to say for yourself and make your own judgements.
This work is rather amazing when you consider the date that he penned these masterpieces. Don't pay any attention to the right-wing attempts at slurring Tom even today. He made sense in 1776 and his arguments makes sense today. If there were no Tom Paine I doubt if their would be an independent United States today - even George Washington admitted that fact. Tom Paine was simply too outspoken and too honest (and too courageous) for his time - or for today's times for that matter.
If you love history, philosophy, or politics as an American this is a man that you must read.
Tom Paine writing style and ability is "inspirational" to say the least.

Books written by Richard Noble - The Hobo Philosopher:
"Hobo-ing America: A Workingman's Tour of the U.S.A.."
"A Summer with Charlie"
"A Little Something: Poetry and Prose"
"Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother"
"The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column.

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Every generation and age must be as free to act for itself

This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of the French Revolution. For Thomas Paine, the eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment because for the first time humankind was throwing off the millstones of religious dogmatism and political despotism. Paine essentially believed that the rights of man encompassed, "...all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others" (Paine, 68).

Paine's Rights of Man was an eloquent yet blistering rebuttal to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Paine got right to the crux of the disagreement he had with Burke when he admonished him for his argument that governmental enactments of previous generations had the force and authority to bind citizens for all time. An example that Burke used was the English Parliament of 1688, which he praised as a model of the type of reform French citizens should emulate. Paine's answer was swift and cutting "Radical Enlightenment" reason. "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies" (41-42). Paine also took Burke to task for his narrow understanding of French socio-political and economic problems leading up to 1789. Unlike Burke, Paine understood that the French Revolution, unlike the others that took place in Europe, was not just a revolt against the king. "Between the monarchy, the parliament, and the church, there was a rivalship of despotism, besides the feudal despotism operating locally, and the ministerial despotism operating everywhere" (48). Thus, what Paine witnessed, Alexis de Tocqueville and Georges Lefebvre observed, agreed with, and commented on, in their history's years later. The institutions that Burke defended in his Reflections, such as the nobility, Church, and monarchial rule, all became "fodder" for Paine's "grist mill" in his defense of France's new constitution.

Paine abhorred the institution of nobility and supported its dissolution for several reasons.
"Because the idea of hereditary legislation is as inconsistent...and absurd as an hereditary mathematician....Because it is continuing the uncivilized principle of governments founded in conquest, and the base idea of man having property over man, and governing him by personal right" (83). No friend to tradition, Paine took Burke to task for defending the notion of, "...hereditary rights, and hereditary succession, and that a Nation has not a right to form a Government for itself" (Paine, 116). Paine defended the French constitution's eradication of tithes to the Catholic Church and it "...hath abolished or renounced Toleration, and Intolerance also, hath established UNIVERSAL RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE" (85). Finally, Paine unleashed a most scathing attack against Burke's suggestion that France should reform its absolutist monarchy into a benign form of constitutional monarchy similar to what Britain enjoyed. "All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny" (172). "It occasionally puts children over men, and the conceits of nonage over wisdom and experience. In short, we cannot conceive a more ridiculous figure of government, than hereditary succession" (173).

Thus, Paine's Radical Enlightenment polemic, which sold more than 200,000 copies throughout Europe, was his reasoned and articulate project towards developing a better world. Consequently, there is no doubt that Paine, whose Radical Enlightenment pen proved to be "mightier than the sword" of despotism both in the American and French Revolutions, understood the importance of the nurturing relationship that Enlightenment philosophes had on the French Revolution. "But all those writings and many others had their weight; and by the different manner in which they treated the subject of government...by their moral maxims and systems of economy, readers of every class met with something to their taste" (Paine, 94).

Recommended reading for anyone interested in political philosophy, enlightenment history, and the French Revolution.

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K. Dekle

On time, and as promised. It's an excellent perspective on our ancestors point of view.

Does it still have meaning today?

Paine wrote RoM while in France, during the early years of the revolution, in response to an antirevolutionary pamphlet from his previous friend Burke. There is lots of polemics going on, and the crux of the matter is that Burke makes light of The Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was adopted by the French National Assembly in August 1789, after the storm of the Bastille. The Declaration, written by Lafayette with some input by Jefferson, is a brief and concise document. It became the preamble of the constitution of 1791.
Here a shortened version.
1. Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2. The aim of all political association is the preservation of the ... rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation. ...
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; ... These limits can only be determined by law.
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen has a right to participate personally, or through his representative, in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it protects or punishes. ...
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law. ...
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.
9. ...all persons are held innocent until they shall have been declared guilty ...
10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions, including his religious views, provided their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.
12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of those to whom they shall be intrusted.
13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in proportion to their means.
14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment and of collection and the duration of the taxes.
15. Society has the right to require of every public agent an account of his administration.
16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured, nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution at all.
17. ... property is an inviolable and sacred right ...

Paine contrasts this brilliantly utopian text with England's lack of a constitution.
But there is not just the matter of principle, there is also disagreement over matters of fact.
Burke had denied not only the French right to revolt, but also the reason to revolt, as the current holder of the throne was not known to be a despot. Paine's point is that the revolution was not against the king as a person, but against a despotic system, which divided and sub-divided in 1000 steps and acted by deputation. Popper's concept of the `open society' comes to mind. The `declaration' quoted above aims at an open society. That is not a question of the personal quality of an individual ruler.

(I can't help thinking laterally, about a special country, which right now also has a reasonably mild and rational government, within the limits of the system... What is the leader of the revolution over here quoted as having said when asked about the French Revolution? It is too early to tell. Well, that seems to be apocryphal.)

Government, wrote Paine, arises out of 3 sources:
a)superstition (priest craft, think of Islamic or other religious states),
b)power (dictatorships, one party rules), or
c)reason (which i.m.o. is synonym with secular).
Unfortunately we know from history that many cases which started out from reason went into some kind of hybrid state, down the road. Or worse, we see the effect of the `dialectics of enlightenment': reason itself becomes embodied in power and perverts itself.
The order of the day for us, today, is to struggle for the survival of reason in existing governments, or for the growth of reason where it is lacking.

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One of Paine?s greatest and most widely read works, considered a classic statement of faith in democracy and egalitarianism, defends the early events of the French Revolution, supports social security for workers, public employment for those in need of work, abolition of laws limiting wages, and other social reforms. An inspiring book that paved the way for the growth and development of democratic traditions in American and British society.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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