Thomas Paine. Common Sense.

Common Sense is a plain, political work, said to have been instrumental. Decent in parts, but short-sighted. Very much of its time. For once you cast off one foe, another foe will come along. United States of America? It is now two nations in one. A fractured nation laden with internal strife and thought-war. A war-beast at home and abroad. Did Paine envision his nation becoming a sell-out to war and commerce?

Politics is the most fantastical of all pursuits, the most fairy-tale-like. To write of politics, one must have an imagination and no imagination, and a narrow lens. This is politics: storybooks for adults. And yet the stories for children speak sense. Common sense. For they see darkness everywhere, not only through small and shallow hole of politics.