Common Sense by Thomas Paine

A 46 page pamphlet called Common Sense by Thomas Paine was published in early 1776. It helped inspire the writing of the Declaration of Independence and motivated a nation.

The book was written for the common man and was estimated to have sold 120,000 copies within three months of publication and 500,000 copies within a year.

It is worth noting that this was in the United States when there were only 3 million people—and many couldn’t read!

John Adams and others had been arguing for the United States to become an independent nation.

The release of Paine’s Common Sense was the inflection point that caused the nation to become independent.

Thomas Paine knew that the time was right to inspire the people to take action.

He argued convincingly that the young nation had to make a choice for independence now—not later.

Paine explained that within fifty years the personal interests of individuals who would acquire status and money by then would resist such a change.

And, the colonies would be more established and would resist such a change.

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” ~Thomas Paine

It may seem like we seeing the death of common sense today. The way the US government has been acting as of late has brought up many common sense questions. Fortunately the statement : Common sense is dead isn’t necessary true.

Many taxpayers for common sense want a stop to the insanity in Washington. There is a book today that addresses these issues clearly and succinctly.

It is called Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out of Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine.

Both Glen Beck’s common sense book and the Thomas Paine common sense books are worth the read.

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