Purpose and Context
Thomas Paine by Samuel Collins, 1792
“THESE are the times that try men’s souls”, is how Thomas Paine began the pamphlets he wrote to fortify the spirits of the new Americans (The American Crisis, 1776). The threat of destruction by British troops thrust a choice before everyone.
Now, it is the American president who has forced a choice on every American. It is not a visible challenge like the British troops. But when he threatened the destruction of the ancient and great Persian civilization, he put a question mark on every American citizen – does this man represent you? Are his violent promises yours? Is that the face you want your America to present to the world?
During Paine’s time “we” – the Americans newly made - were standing for the opposite of the idea that those in power should use that power against others. We stood for the idea of what was later called “self-determination”, which is a way of thinking about groups of people that lets them be, which leads to peaceful relations. He wrote:
…my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent.
Does that America still live and breathe and have a voice?
Now, it is the American president who has forced a choice on every American. It is not a visible challenge like the British troops. But when he threatened the destruction of the ancient and great Persian civilization, he put a question mark on every American citizen – does this man represent you? Are his violent promises yours? Is that the face you want your America to present to the world?
During Paine’s time “we” – the Americans newly made - were standing for the opposite of the idea that those in power should use that power against others. We stood for the idea of what was later called “self-determination”, which is a way of thinking about groups of people that lets them be, which leads to peaceful relations. He wrote:
…my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent.
Does that America still live and breathe and have a voice?
Our response to our own leader concerning how we behave towards the rest of the world will determine how we belong to the community of humanity. The seismic shudder of violent threat sent through the world of minds reoriented the old set point concerning the idea of America, which stood for dignity and respect, at least in principle. Now it’s somewhere closer to Putin’s horrific dimension and all the others who destroy humans casually or with relish.[i] How the rest of us react will determine whether it stays knocked there or can come back to something at least trying to be humane.
Iran is not made up just of the violent leaders who hold it captive with a simulacrum of religion and some kind of massive, vicious confusion about women. It is also a place where civilization originated and ripened, where people love poetry, have beautiful public gardens and buildings. (See Rick Steves' visit, for example). Alexander, when he saw how the Persians lived, wanted that for the Greeks. Cyrus, the one who released the Hebrews from their captivity and sent them back home to Zion, free to worship as they pleased, established governance practices that spread around the world. Thinking of such things can make an American appalled, aggrieved, angry, ashamed, that the man who supposedly speaks for our country threatened brutal destruction, and of a civilization, no less. This was surprising even for a man expected to be unpredictable.
Can a convincing repudiation issue from the throats of enough Americans? Is there even now a quiet building of pent passion that will not subside? Will future action release us from this moral stain?
This voice of frightening tyranny, born out of the sociopathic "we come first" attitude, does not even represent a majority. As adults act to control juvenile delinquency it must be squashed by the rest of us. It is time for the rest of us to speak up. We can be for everyone.
Paine described the choice before people of his time:
By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils.
Some of the mighty soul of this country is not lying dead, as Senator Markey and 70 House Democrats called on the removal of our current chief executive; as experts on television urged those in the military not to participate in a civilization-destroying effort, reminding everyone that following orders does not excuse one from accountability for participating in war crimes; and some pointed out that the threat itself was a war crime. We are not powerless to change the face our leader has shown to the world - to tell it, that is not our face - and to present a different one, the face of a friend you would like to have.
This matter of who we are is not simple. That’s maybe what drives those who want to cut humanity into a slot, push populations through a filter. They are impatient, intolerant of complexity. They are afraid of those who are different. They lack the imagination and perception to see what we all share.
It is delusional to think there is any other way to treat humans than as individually unique and precious. It is the infinite variety in the whole of us that is the state of things. Like the soul that is tested, the totality of us is indefinable. Democracy is that.
But the matter of what we are not, or what you don't want to be, that can be simple and clear, as when you are presented with the choice of beauty over ugliness, kindness over cruelty. Then the soul’s test is sharp and unequivocal. Evil is evil.
The former colonists had to muster for an unwarranted war, as now. We need to muster understanding of the concept of democracy that held then and ripened here - that we cooperate and figure things out together instead of fight. A democratic society has a Department of Defense. A brutal, primitive one has a Department of War. Our current president’s signature posture is with his fists in the air.
Perhaps some who mistakenly think he is fighting for them can be helped to see that the way of contest organizes the world with imbalance and conflict built in, and to forsake allegiance to winner-take-all, us v. them thinking. Who knows? Maybe they can be helped to see the real road to peace, prosperity, and the pride of dignity, that only healthy democracy reveals. Then we can resume cooperative interaction, which is what allows synergies to emerge which can expand humanity’s wellbeing.
I yearn for the world to see the America I know, the one that is Very Beautiful, the one that has the kindness, the public spirit, the honest friendships I have known and witnessed here,
The New York Times yesterday had a Guest Essay by Dr. Hélène Landemore of Yale University, about the rising use of citizen assemblies.[ii] A random selection of citizens is brought together to deliberate about public matters. It applies the theory of the jury, that a random collection of enough citizens, to whom experts present facts and opinions, will be a helpful way of reaching good decisions. They have been tried in some states, European countries, and appear to work wonderfully well, which should not be surprising. Democracy exists in the world now without our federal government, (see: Roosevelts, UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for pride in their spreading it) but we must not let it remain lonely.
Many souls have been troubled by the actions of our president, and the meaning it expresses to the rest of the world. The threat to destroy another civilization has made it necessary that there be some kind of turning in our relationship to the rest of the world. That depends on our relationships with ourselves, which depends on who we want to be. King George forced that question, and the world has since been glad to see how the people responded back in Thomas Paine’s day, how when asked who they were, they made something great out of the idea of people being treated with respect. He wrote then:
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
[i] Our Secretary of Defense speaks of mercilessness. As a priest of Ares would he discards rules of engagement, celebrates maximum lethality, uses suggestive phrases and imagery to turn the conflict into a religious war. An ancient Achillean rage has hijacked both religion and our military, (See, for contrast, Sylvanus Thayer, West Point, the Nuremburg trials for what are taught as our traditions). Such expressions could hardly do more to help the recruitment and propaganda efforts of his Islamic enemies.
[ii] Opinion | No Shy Person Left Behind - The New York Times
Iran is not made up just of the violent leaders who hold it captive with a simulacrum of religion and some kind of massive, vicious confusion about women. It is also a place where civilization originated and ripened, where people love poetry, have beautiful public gardens and buildings. (See Rick Steves' visit, for example). Alexander, when he saw how the Persians lived, wanted that for the Greeks. Cyrus, the one who released the Hebrews from their captivity and sent them back home to Zion, free to worship as they pleased, established governance practices that spread around the world. Thinking of such things can make an American appalled, aggrieved, angry, ashamed, that the man who supposedly speaks for our country threatened brutal destruction, and of a civilization, no less. This was surprising even for a man expected to be unpredictable.
Can a convincing repudiation issue from the throats of enough Americans? Is there even now a quiet building of pent passion that will not subside? Will future action release us from this moral stain?
This voice of frightening tyranny, born out of the sociopathic "we come first" attitude, does not even represent a majority. As adults act to control juvenile delinquency it must be squashed by the rest of us. It is time for the rest of us to speak up. We can be for everyone.
Paine described the choice before people of his time:
By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils.
Some of the mighty soul of this country is not lying dead, as Senator Markey and 70 House Democrats called on the removal of our current chief executive; as experts on television urged those in the military not to participate in a civilization-destroying effort, reminding everyone that following orders does not excuse one from accountability for participating in war crimes; and some pointed out that the threat itself was a war crime. We are not powerless to change the face our leader has shown to the world - to tell it, that is not our face - and to present a different one, the face of a friend you would like to have.
This matter of who we are is not simple. That’s maybe what drives those who want to cut humanity into a slot, push populations through a filter. They are impatient, intolerant of complexity. They are afraid of those who are different. They lack the imagination and perception to see what we all share.
It is delusional to think there is any other way to treat humans than as individually unique and precious. It is the infinite variety in the whole of us that is the state of things. Like the soul that is tested, the totality of us is indefinable. Democracy is that.
But the matter of what we are not, or what you don't want to be, that can be simple and clear, as when you are presented with the choice of beauty over ugliness, kindness over cruelty. Then the soul’s test is sharp and unequivocal. Evil is evil.
The former colonists had to muster for an unwarranted war, as now. We need to muster understanding of the concept of democracy that held then and ripened here - that we cooperate and figure things out together instead of fight. A democratic society has a Department of Defense. A brutal, primitive one has a Department of War. Our current president’s signature posture is with his fists in the air.
Perhaps some who mistakenly think he is fighting for them can be helped to see that the way of contest organizes the world with imbalance and conflict built in, and to forsake allegiance to winner-take-all, us v. them thinking. Who knows? Maybe they can be helped to see the real road to peace, prosperity, and the pride of dignity, that only healthy democracy reveals. Then we can resume cooperative interaction, which is what allows synergies to emerge which can expand humanity’s wellbeing.
I yearn for the world to see the America I know, the one that is Very Beautiful, the one that has the kindness, the public spirit, the honest friendships I have known and witnessed here,
The New York Times yesterday had a Guest Essay by Dr. Hélène Landemore of Yale University, about the rising use of citizen assemblies.[ii] A random selection of citizens is brought together to deliberate about public matters. It applies the theory of the jury, that a random collection of enough citizens, to whom experts present facts and opinions, will be a helpful way of reaching good decisions. They have been tried in some states, European countries, and appear to work wonderfully well, which should not be surprising. Democracy exists in the world now without our federal government, (see: Roosevelts, UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for pride in their spreading it) but we must not let it remain lonely.
Many souls have been troubled by the actions of our president, and the meaning it expresses to the rest of the world. The threat to destroy another civilization has made it necessary that there be some kind of turning in our relationship to the rest of the world. That depends on our relationships with ourselves, which depends on who we want to be. King George forced that question, and the world has since been glad to see how the people responded back in Thomas Paine’s day, how when asked who they were, they made something great out of the idea of people being treated with respect. He wrote then:
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
[i] Our Secretary of Defense speaks of mercilessness. As a priest of Ares would he discards rules of engagement, celebrates maximum lethality, uses suggestive phrases and imagery to turn the conflict into a religious war. An ancient Achillean rage has hijacked both religion and our military, (See, for contrast, Sylvanus Thayer, West Point, the Nuremburg trials for what are taught as our traditions). Such expressions could hardly do more to help the recruitment and propaganda efforts of his Islamic enemies.
[ii] Opinion | No Shy Person Left Behind - The New York Times
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