{"id":564,"date":"2011-02-04T06:09:55","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T13:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/?p=564"},"modified":"2011-02-06T10:42:18","modified_gmt":"2011-02-06T17:42:18","slug":"common-sense-by-thomas-paine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/common-sense-by-thomas-paine","title":{"rendered":"Common Sense by Thomas Paine"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\nThis puzzle is full of puns, we apologize in advance.  However, it does have a couple cryptic clues and some pretty straightforward ones as well.  It is taken from the beginning of Thomas Paine&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ushistory.org\/paine\/commonsense\/sense2.htm\">Common Sense<\/a>, which you&#8217;ll find below.  Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>If you have a problem with the flash working for you, you may wish to use the <a href=\"http:\/\/wwtft.com\/puzzles\/common\/commonsense.png\">static version<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you succeed in doing the puzzle, we&#8217;ve implemented a way for you to get credit for your efforts!\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"margin-left:10px;\" width=\"20%\" valign=\"top\">\n            <style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n                table.cf7-db-table {\r\n                    margin-top: 1em;\r\n                    border-spacing: 0;\r\n                    border: 0 solid gray;\r\n                    font-size: x-small;\r\n                }\r\n\r\n                br {\r\n                                        mso-data-placement: same-cell;\r\n                }\r\n\r\n                table.cf7-db-table th {\r\n                    padding: 5px;\r\n                    border: 1px solid gray;\r\n                }\r\n\r\n                table.cf7-db-table th > td {\r\n                    font-size: x-small;\r\n                    background-color: #E8E8E8;\r\n                }\r\n\r\n                table.cf7-db-table tbody td {\r\n                    padding: 5px;\r\n                    border: 1px solid gray;\r\n                    font-size: x-small;\r\n                }\r\n\r\n                table.cf7-db-table tbody td > div {\r\n                    max-height: 100px;\r\n                    overflow: auto;\r\n                }\r\n            <\/style>\r\n            \r\n        <table id=\"cftble_508857340\" class=\"cf7-db-table\" >\r\n            <thead>\r\n                        <tr>\r\n            <th title=\"puzzle-solver\"><div id=\"Contact form 1,puzzle-solver\">puzzle-solver<\/div><\/th>            <\/tr>\r\n                        <\/thead>\r\n            <tbody>\r\n                            <tr>\r\n                <td title=\"puzzle-solver\"><div id=\"1296426400.0000,puzzle-solver\">Matthew<\/div><\/td><\/tr>            <\/tbody>\r\n        <\/table>\r\n        <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/p>\n\r\n    <object classid=\"clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000\" id=\"swfobj_0\" width=\"90%\" height=\"620\">\r\n      <param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/puzzles\/common\/cwf_live.swf?version=6.1.13&amp;puzzleFileName=puzzle.xml\" \/>\n      <param name=\"base\" value=\"\/puzzles\/common\" \/>\r\n      <!--[if !IE]>-->\r\n      <object type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" data=\"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/puzzles\/common\/cwf_live.swf?version=6.1.13&amp;puzzleFileName=puzzle.xml\" width=\"90%\" height=\"620\" base=\"\/puzzles\/common\">\r\n      <!--<![endif]-->\r\n        \r\n      <!--[if !IE]>-->\r\n      <\/object>\r\n      <!--<![endif]-->\r\n    <\/object>\r\n\n<h4>Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise  Remarks on the English Constitution<\/h4>\n<p>SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave  little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only  different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants,  and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness  POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by  restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates  distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.<\/p>\n<p>Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its  best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable  one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A  GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our  calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which  we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the  palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For  were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed,  man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds  it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means  for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same  prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to  choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of  government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears  most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest  benefit, is preferable to all others.<\/p>\n<p>In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of  government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some  sequestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest; they will then  represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this  state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought. A  thousand motives will excite them thereto; the strength of one man is so  unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted for perpetual solitude,  that he is soon obliged to seek assistance and relief of another, who in  his turn requires the same. Four or five united would be able to raise a  tolerable dwelling in the midst of a wilderness, but one man might  labour out the common period of life without accomplishing any thing;  when he had felled his timber he could not remove it, nor erect it after  it was removed; hunger in the mean time would urge him to quit his  work, and every different want would call him a different way. Disease,  nay even misfortune, would be death; for, though neither might be  mortal, yet either would disable him from living, and reduce him to a  state in which he might rather be said to perish than to die.<\/p>\n<p>Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would soon form our newly  arrived emigrants into society, the reciprocal blessings of which would  supersede, and render the obligations of law and government unnecessary  while they remained perfectly just to each other; but as nothing but  Heaven is impregnable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in  proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of emigration, which  bound them together in a common cause, they will begin to relax in their  duty and attachment to each other: and this remissness will point out  the necessity of establishing some form of government to supply the  defect of moral virtue.<\/p>\n<p>Some convenient tree will afford them a State House, under the  branches of which the whole Colony may assemble to deliberate on public  matters. It is more than probable that their first laws will have the  title only of Regulations and be enforced by no other penalty than  public disesteem. In this first parliament every man by natural right  will have a seat.<\/p>\n<p>But as the Colony encreases, the public concerns will encrease  likewise, and the distance at which the members may be separated, will  render it too inconvenient for all of them to meet on every occasion as  at first, when their number was small, their habitations near, and the  public concerns few and trifling. This will point out the convenience of  their consenting to leave the legislative part to be managed by a  select number chosen from the whole body, who are supposed to have the  same concerns at stake which those have who appointed them, and who will  act in the same manner as the whole body would act were they present.  If the colony continue encreasing, it will become necessary to augment  the number of representatives, and that the interest of every part of  the colony may be attended to, it will be found best to divide the whole  into convenient parts, each part sending its proper number: and that  the ELECTED might never form to themselves an interest separate from the  ELECTORS, prudence will point out the propriety of having elections  often: because as the ELECTED might by that means return and mix again  with the general body of the ELECTORS in a few months, their fidelity to  the public will be secured by the prudent reflection of not making a  rod for themselves. And as this frequent interchange will establish a  common interest with every part of the community, they will mutually and  naturally support each other, and on this, (not on the unmeaning name  of king,) depends the STRENGTH OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE HAPPINESS OF THE  GOVERNED.<\/p>\n<p>Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode  rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world;  here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and  security. And however our eyes may be dazzled with show, or our ears  deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our wills, or interest  darken our understanding, the simple voice of nature and reason will  say, &#8217;tis right.<\/p>\n<p>I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature  which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the  less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when  disordered; and with this maxim in view I offer a few remarks on the so  much boasted constitution of England. That it was noble for the dark and  slavish times in which it was erected, is granted. When the world was  overrun with tyranny the least remove therefrom was a glorious rescue.  But that it is imperfect, subject to convulsions, and incapable of  producing what it seems to promise is easily demonstrated.<\/p>\n<p>Absolute governments, (tho&#8217; the disgrace of human nature) have this  advantage with them, they are simple; if the people suffer, they know  the head from which their suffering springs; know likewise the remedy;  and are not bewildered by a variety of causes and cures. But the  constitution of England is so exceedingly complex, that the nation may  suffer for years together without being able to discover in which part  the fault lies; some will say in one and some in another, and every  political physician will advise a different medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week&#8217;s puzzle continues our Thom Paine theme, this time with the opening paragraphs from his pamphlet Common Sense.  We have also continued our foray into developing cryptic clue and thrown in a few corny puns too.  <\/p>\n<p>All that aside, it&#8217;s Paine&#8217;s writing that is what&#8217;s notable here.  We&#8217;ve included the portion from which the words were taken for the puzzle.  It&#8217;s worth reading even if you don&#8217;t do the puzzle!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[19,127,1110],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/commonsense.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.whatwouldthefoundersthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}