Revolutionary Wars?

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Recommended: Rights of man thomas paine and how it still holds true to america today

Paine writes against the lucrative business of war, yet his entire reason for writing not only this book but also Common Sense is to encourage the people of certain nations to rise up and if necessary start a war if not a civil war. He fails to accept the consequences or think his urging of revolutions through. In the French Revolution many heinous acts occurred, one in particular was the lynch mob, executioners of Foulon and Bertier. Paine states, “ These outrages were not the effect of the principles of the Revolution, but of the degraded mind that existed before the Revolution, and which the Revolution is calculated to reform.” (p. 58-59) His ideal revolution took a nasty and realistic turn, yet he writes it off by blaming the former government, instead of thinking as Hume and question whether the cure is really better than the disease. Throughout the piece Paine speaks of war and revolutions with a disconnect between the two, war is always bad and a business for governments but he supports revolutions, at least Euro-centric ones. He does not mention that revolution is a war, albeit it is the people’s war, nevertheless they can be just as nasty as government run wars.

Paine writes against the lucrative business of war, yet his entire reason for writing not only this book but also Common Sense is to encourage the people of certain nations to rise up and if necessary start a war if not a civil war. He fails to accept the consequences or think his urging of revolutions through. In the French Revolution many heinous acts occurred, one in particular was the lynch mob, executioners of Foulon and Bertier. Paine states, “ These outrages were not the effect of the principles of the Revolution, but of the degraded mind that existed be...

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...etely thought out would have made his argument perhaps not as fiery but it would be more enlightened. It is true that one can never know how something will turn out, but the people need to know not only that they are being mistreated by a government but also the effects of the revolution that he so persist is the best thing for them.

There is another fact about Thomas Paine’s Part One of the “Rights of Man” that is baffling. In an essay that defends the principles and events of the Revolution of France, it is remarkable that Paine discusses only one of the French Revolutionary leaders, the Marquis de Lafayette. Paine fails to discuss any of the other leaders or even other revolutionary writers but brings up Lafayette in at least four other sections in Part One. Being that the Marquis set up a Liberal government in France and ignored the radicals,

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