thomas
paine on the fossil media;
by the auroran
sunset
The fossil media’s lack of contact with reality or honesty is nothing
new. The following was written in 1806:
“The writer of this remembers a remark made to him by Mr. Jefferson
concerning the English Newspapers which at that time, 1787, while Mr. Jefferson
was Minister at Paris, were most vulgarly abusive. The remark applies with
equal force to the Federal papers of America. The remark was, that "the
licentiousness of the press produces the same effect as the restraint of
the press was intended to do. The restraint, said he, was to prevent things
being told, and the licentiousness of the press prevents things being believed
when they are told." We have in this state an evidence of the truth
of this remark. The number of federal papers in the city and state of New-York
are more than five to one to the number of republican papers, yet the majority
of the elections go always against the federal papers, which is demonstrative
evidence that the licentiousness of those papers are destitute of credit.”
Thomas Paine, Collected Writing,
p.429.
I originally bought this collection of Paine’s writing from my interest
in American politics and the spread of freedom. However, I could just as easily
recommend the book for those who simply want to read beautifully written prose.
Thomas Paine sometimes goes over the top on the rhetoric of his cases, but
even then he invariably manages to do it prettily.
As for the content, this is a man who sized up the great problem of his day
and decided that the most effective way to improve the world was to start
writing. Having decided, he then set about pretty much singlehandedly persuading
America, first to declare independence [in Common sense], and
then to stick to their guns [in The crisis series of public letters],
until Britain was defeated and America was free to become the beacon of hope
it is today.
Paine’s methods were truly modern: step by logical step he took the
arguments of his opponents to pieces, leaving them with nowhere left to stand.
He regularly dissected the illogics in the statements of America’s enemies.
He also carried out highly competent ‘fisks’
more than two centuries before Fisk began making a fool of himself.
As with any ‘ancient’, it is possible for those who stand on
his shoulders to pick holes and mock the ignorance of his age, as seen through
his writings. However, without these same writings, our freedom, wealth and
knowledge would likely not afford us the latitude to mock. Paine is one of
the giants on whose
shoulders we all stand.
Amongst Paine’s other achievements is inventing a new way of constructing
iron bridges so as to span much larger rivers with much greater ease. With
surprising naivety, he was also centrally involved in the early French revolution,
prior to the bloodbaths - he almost got himself killed opposing said bloodbaths.
He also, in effect, invented a ‘rationalist’ religion whose ideas
are still influential today. He campaigned against slavery and capital punishment.
He wrote of a citizen’s
wage in Agrarian justice.
“The life of an [Red] Indian is a continual holiday, compared with
the poor of Europe; and, on the other hand, it appears to be abject when
compared to the rich. Civilization, therefore, or that which is so called,
has operated, two ways, to make one part of society more affluent, and the
other part more wretched, than would have been the lot of either in a natural
state.
“It is always possible to go from the natural to the civilized state,
but it is never possible to go from the civilized to the natural state.
The reason is, that man, in a natural state, subsisting by hunting, requires
ten times the quantity of land to range over, to procure himself sustenance,
than would support him in a civilized state, where the earth is cultivated.
When therefore a country becomes populous by the additional aids of cultivation,
arts, and science, there is a necessity of preserving things in that state;
because, without it, there cannot be sustenance for more, perhaps, than
a tenth part of its inhabitants. The thing therefore now to be done, is,
to remedy the evils, and preserve the benefits, that have arisen to society,
by passing from the natural to that which is called the civilized state.”
Note that this is precisely the same mechanism which makes it not an option
to ignore our fossil
fuel problems.
Not bad for a perpetually broke corset-maker cum customs inspector cum drifter
from Thetford in Norfolk, England.
This book has 830 pages of Thomas Paine’s writing and a fairly full
chronology of his life. It is a properly bound hardback with nice thin pages:
the way a book should be. I have not finished reading it yet, but this one
definitely goes on my recommendations list.
 |
Thomas Paine :
Collected Writings : Common Sense / The Crisis / Rights of Man
/ The Age of Reason / Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters
Library of America, 1995, hbk, 1883011035
$22.05
[amazon.com] {advert} /
£17.60
[amazon.co.uk] {advert} |
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/review2005-2.php#thomas_paine_061105 |
| Einstein
defiant - a review
highly recommended - 
I have read a great many such books on this subject, the development of relativity
and quantum physics, and this is the best I have found.
My interest in the field is not in the physics, but in the mental set and
communications between the prime workers in the field over the past century.
For clear description of these aspects, this book is highly recommended, even
though the author assumes differences (and so probably do many of the workers)
that were more imaginary than real.
The book is foolishly hyped in terms of imagined contentions between workers
who, in fact, had considerable mutual respect for each other’s ability.
This applies particularly to an essentially false, but fashionable, representation
of a near to nonexistent ‘quarrel’ between Einstein and Bohr.
As with so much writing, the author irrelevantly waltzes off into the long
grass in the last twenty pages of the book. It would have been better to save
the paper.
Not withstanding these shortcomings, I must award this book five Golden Yaks
(tm) for its enormous usefulness as a coherent source. The author has a much
better than usual grasp of the technical aspects of the physics, and the wit
and ability to present the developments in clear simple language, without
redundant verbiage and pomposity.
It is not well understood that workers in various fields tend to set their
minds up according to the technical requirements of their professional interests.
A differing mind-set does not indicate better or worse, nor does it indicate
contention or quarrel; much more it is a matter of using a spanner to undo
a bolt, rather than reaching for a screwdriver. To assemble the complex and
impressive structure of modern physics was not, and could not have been, done
with just a bunch of spanners. It has required, and will continue to require,
a very wide-ranging tool kit with the added invention of new tools as difficulties
appear. Competitive and narrow egos may strut and claim their individual road
is best; although it may be best for their purposes, those various bests are
no universals.
 |
Einstein Defiant: Genius Versus Genius
in the Quantum Revolution by Edmund Blair Bolles, 2004,
Joseph Henry Press,0309089980
$18.24
[amazon.com] {advert} /
£17.99 [amazon.co.uk] {advert} |
related material
poverty and distribution
of wealth
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/review2005-2.php#einstein_bohr_101005 |
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