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"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach
by wissler 13y ago
"He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine
- seanmcdirmid 13y agoThomas Paine is rolling in his grave given how libertarians have perverted his message to mean freedom to own lots of guns and not pay taxes.
- ToothlessJake 13y agoGood thing that no one in this thread or on this site in general poses that POV.
- ferdo 13y agoThomas Paine was no friend to taxes: "War is the common harvest of all those who participate in the division and expenditure of public money, in all countries. It is the art of conquering at home; the object of it is an increase of revenue; and as revenue cannot be increased without taxes, a pretence must be made for expenditure. In reviewing the history of the English Government, its wars and its taxes, a bystander, not blinded by prejudice nor warped by interest, would declare that taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes." Rights of Man http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/paine/thomas/p147r/complete.html http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/paine/thomas/p147r/complete....
- nknighthb 13y agoThomas Paine's objective was not what you think it was. "The first step, therefore, of practical relief, would be to abolish the poor-rates entirely, and in lieu thereof, to make a remission of taxes to the poor of double the amount of the present poor-rates, viz., four millions annually out of the surplus taxes." Rights of Man, Part the Second
- ferdo 13y agoI very much doubt Paine would be in favor of what's passing for government at the moment.
- seanmcdirmid 13y agoCompared with what was common his time? I wouldn't be so sure. And we have no way of knowing for sure.
- gyepi 13y agoI think we can be more definite than that. Based on "Common Sense" and "Rights of Man" it is pretty clear that Paine was oppossed to any kind of government that was more concerned with furthering its own power than the social good.
- seanmcdirmid 13y agoMeaning he wouldn't be satisfied with any government in his time or ours? Ok, I can agree with that.
- wissler 13y ago1) What does that have to do with the subject at hand? 2) Citation?