The Rights Of Man Thomas Paine Summary

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The Rights of Man In Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man”, his claim about the diversity of the United States and how it should be handled is completely applicable to our modern society and government, even more so than it held true at the time he wrote the excerpt. Many seem to misread what he first accuses of America. He primarily states how America is the least likely nation to find concord and fluidity, with such diverse peoples, various languages, different culture, etc. With such a contradictory message to his main point, Paine establishes the credibility of his verdict that America can only thrive through a government which does not oppress, tax overwhelmingly, or regulate. Paine’s message does not just hold its value in modern America, …show more content…

What Paine undoubtedly feels is astonishment at England’s blindness. The British had left his colonies alone to govern themselves for about a 50-year period of salutary neglect, and the colonies had just a taste of what beauty can come from fluidity and civil coercion amongst peoples, without the government interfering in every little affair. During that time, the colonies enjoyed a prosperous economy, an abundant culture, and a relatively quiet, peaceful spell. With just a glimpse of what independence can do for a group of people, the British ultimately set the stage for their inevitable demise. When the Parliament began to tax the colonies relentlessly, the colonists grew wise to what was happening and realized the necessity for an attempt against such oppression. Thus, we find what Paine consistently refers to as the need for unity against a common evil. For the first time, the colonies experienced what power they could conjure if they united and fought against their British counterparts. In the modern US, we find a less dramatic form of the overall lesson, but the message remains the same: Unity is a beautiful thing when it is not regulated by a governing body. Therefore, Paine’s message holds true in today’s America, because “cordial unison” can only be accomplished with a government whose only purpose is to maintain the natural rights of each citizen and protect the individual from cruelty, rather than enacting such a cruelty upon the

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