Thursday, October 15, 2009

Thomas Paine in the 21st Century

Thomas Paine was possibly one of the biggest proponents of revolution and independence in history.  He worked hard to help free America from Brittin, and was also very involved with the French Revolution.  However, the strange thing was, almost immediately after the country had accomplished independence and was successful in the revolution, instead of involving himself in the politics of managing a new nation, Paine would more to another country and become immersed in another revolution.  Because of what he did during his lifetime, it makes sense to infer that Paine didn't really care what type of revolution he was a part, he just wanted to be a part of upending the current government situation.  For these reasons, I think Paine would be happy about "revolutionary" things such as a the quickly-improving technology like the Internet and cell phones, and a recently elected black president.  Because Paine essentially liked to upend a current government, I think he would be happy to see several countries in the 21st century standing up against bad government situations, for example, Afghanistan and the Taliban.

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