I haven’t finished this book. Now that that’s out of the way, I can start ‘analyzing’. I’m going to stick with quotes today so my brain doesn’t explode.

So far, I’m finding this book okay. It’s not literature, though. Argh. Paine kind of seems to kiss America’s ass, which I find a bit intolerable, but his tone is very conversational. So it’s kind of a 50/50 between excruciatingly annoying traits and really appealing ones.

Page 9 has my favourite quote/idea so far: “There never did, there never will, and there never can exist a parliament, or any description of men, or any generation of men, in any country, possessed of the right or the power of binding and controlling posterity to the ‘end of time’, or of commanding for ever how the world shall be governed, or who shall govern it … Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it.”

This is really interesting because 1791 is quite early for the ‘every generation for itself’ concept. Hmm. I’m interested to see what else Paine has to say about governments. Although I typically don’t like political philosophy, this could be an interesting shift from my regular reading preferences.

These next two weeks are particularly hectic for me, so I’m going to try my best to stay on top of readings, etc!

PS: Seamus was right about Paine … he’s kind of a pain.