The logic in Common Sense

The logic in Common Sense is flawed. For example, Thomas Paine asserts, “Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil” However, a necessary evil is evil, nevertheless. Thus, if a society lives in a state that necessitates evil, then how can that society be blessed?

Thomas Paine used an allegory to prove his point. He considers a “small number of persons” who form a society. “In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought”. But as the population of this society grows, and the citizens “begin to relax in their duty and attachment to each other”, they will necessitate evil. Thus, my common sense dictates that society in its natural state is a blessing, but society in its unnatural state necessitates evil, and the more unnatural society becomes, the more evil it will necessitate.

I do agree with Paine that government is “a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world”. However, the people’s inability to govern the world is not a blessing but a problem whose solution will diminish the need for government and free society as we should be. Thus, to eliminate the need for evil or at least to diminish it, we must become and continue to be more mindful of our moral duties and attachment to each other if that is even possible.

As Henry David Thoreau taught us, ““That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have” (1849, para. 1).