The Equal Brotherhood of Mankind: Paine's Revolutionary Vision

What happens when we surrender our natural equality and self-governance to those who claim divine right to rule? Thomas Paine's revolutionary text "Common Sense" provides a searing critique of monarchy that resonates powerfully in today's world of modern elitism and concentrated power.

The chapter begins with Paine's foundational premise that mankind was created equal, with this equality only destroyed by subsequent human arrangements. Male and female are nature's distinctions; good and bad are heaven's—beyond that, all hierarchies are human constructs. When Paine questions how any race or class exalts itself above others, he strikes at the heart of inequalities we still grapple with today.

Drawing from biblical history, Paine notes that before kings, there were no wars. The patriarchs enjoyed "quiet rural lives" with "a happy something in them." When Israelites demanded a king "like other nations," they received Samuel's warning—kings would take sons for war, daughters for service, and the best resources for themselves and their favorites. This ancient warning mirrors our modern reality where governments draft citizens, industries serve the state, and taxation often benefits the connected few through "bribery, corruption and favoritism."

Henry David Thoreau extends Paine's philosophy with his challenge to unjust authority: "Must a citizen ever resign his conscience to the legislature? Why has every man a conscience then?" His assertion that we should cultivate respect for right over respect for law reminds us of our moral responsibility in the face of authority. Today's elites—ruling "not by merit but by title" and often without competence in what they govern—fulfill Paine's warning about those who become "insolent, poisoned by importance" while living detached from ordinary experience.

Listen to this episode to rediscover why Paine concluded that one honest person is worth more to society than "all the crowned ruffians that ever lived." Subscribe now and join our exploration of revolutionary ideas that continue to challenge power structures centuries after they were first penned.

Chapters

• 0:00 Equality in Creation
• 1:04 Kings and the Absence of Wars
• 1:47 Biblical Warnings Against Monarchy
• 3:21 Self-Rule and Conscience
• 4:45 Modern Elites and Paine's Warning

Transcript

Taylor: 0:00

Common Sense Applied Today, chapter 2. Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance, states Paine. It is self-apparent, the equal brotherhood of mankind. Even the secularist declares I think therefore I am A similar declaration said to Moses on Sinai as a superior original substance is the sentient moral man. All form beyond that is construct of mankind. Male and female, are the distinctions of nature good and bad, the distinctions of heaven, not mankind, paine plainly states. He questions how any race of men, and I'll add class distinction, is exalted above the rest.

Taylor: 0:42

Using scripture, as his guide, paine explains, in the early ages there were no kings. The consequence there were no wars. Noting it is the pride of kings which throw mankind into confusion, I propose that any government, beyond redress of her people, has transformed itself into a king by claiming a divine right of its own existence beyond the happiness and security of her people. Antiquity favors the quiet rural lives of the first patriarchs which hath a happy something in them which vanished in scripture. When a royalty is introduced Today, a class of men exists. They set themselves above the rest, elites of every flavor, marked by a belief that they know better as the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the equal rights of nature. What neighbor has the right to decide for you the direction of your fate? Why then, once set far away from your home, circumstance and familial nature, claim to know what's better? In the history of Scripture, jews were ruled by judges In a former republic. Kings Paine explains they had none. It was held sinful to acknowledge any being under that title. No man by reason can exalt himself above another. Monarchy or elitism is ranked in Scripture, for which a curse and reserve is denounced.

Taylor: 2:03

Gideon, when asked to rule in the piety of his soul, I will not rule, replied I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The Lord I am shall rule over you. Gideon not only declines the honor but denieth their right to give it the right to give it. The only rightful king is their Lord in heaven, known as the great. I am a thinking man of reason. The only rightful king is their Lord in heaven, known as the Great. I Am a thinking man of reason. The people of the Bible still declare now make us a king to judge us as other nations. Their motives were bad. They have not rejected thee but me, then I should not reign over them In light of the name the Great I Am, one may impose the people rejected self-rule, following their moral compass to remove from oneself the definition of virtue and vest it in another, when this act is endeavored to give self-command to another.

Taylor: 2:54

This shall be the manner of the king elites who govern. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself For purpose of war. Today, every man is compulsory, registered to be drafted. He will set them to ear his ground and to reap his harvest. Entire industries to serve the states. Service and war will be raised up. He will take your daughters to be cooks and bakers, to expand their luxury. Elites will pay pittance to those who provide it. He will take your fields and your olive yards, and even the best of them, and give them to his servants. A tenth of your seed and of your vineyard and give them to his officers and to his servants. The elites will take, without any personal production, taking from the able to enable the unable, by bribery, corruption and favoritism. He will take of your resources even the best and put them to his work.

Taylor: 3:46

A self-serving government ran by elites. This is the embodiment of this warning. Pray for the servants", for we have added unto our sins this evil. To ask a king to remove from oneself the blessing of self-rule is to deny yourself All right. Thoreau plainly applies this to our current state. Must a citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislature? Why has every man a conscience then?

Taylor: 4:22

I think we should be men first and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law so much as for right. I think we should be men first and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law so much as for right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. No one, by worth or usurpation of any kind, could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others.

Taylor: 4:45

Pain opines. All established authority comes, established by lot, election or usurpation. None of the three divine. All three connected to the original sin of sovereignty removed. For, as in Adam, all sinned, as in one, all mankind were subjected to Satan vice giving rise to government and to the other, to sovereignty, referring to delegated power to choose, as our innocence was lost in the first and our authority in the last, and as both disable us from assuming some former state and privilege pain for the states.

Taylor: 5:19

Men who look upon themselves born to reign and others to obey soon grow insolent, poisoned by importance, and the world they act in differs so materially from the rest of the world at large that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interest, and when they succeed to the government, are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any.

Taylor: 5:39

Throughout the dominions In Paine's day, the elite ruling class were men of title, titles forced upon mankind. Today, indeed, we see much the same Elites forced upon society to rule not by merit but by title, men who regulate the business of profit enterprise yet have never earned one for themselves by right of education or elected as the lesser of two-party evils. Exalted, they appear on TV, the halls of government, but competence of what they rule eludes them. In speaking of the king but applied to incapable elites, today, paine concludes A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed 800 sterling a year, a massive sum indeed for and worshipped in the bargain Of. More worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.