INTRODUCTION: Why update Common Sense?

Had the spirit of prophecy directed the birth
of this production, it could not have brought it forth
at a more seasonable juncture, or a more necessary time.
– Thomas Paine (2nd edition of Common Sense)

"PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor," wrote Thomas Paine to begin his introduction to Common Sense. "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason."

Thomas Paine in Common Sense voiced the vision of the Enlightenment movement in the 18th century. His radiant reasoning fits the Global Enlightenment movement of the 21st century. I’ve updated his essay to help us define a new vision of democracy that puts our highest ideals into practice today.

Back in 1776, a dark time for the friends of freedom, Paine’s essay revived hope and inspired action. For all progressives and libertarians today who mourn the loss of freedom, who want to restore democracy by uniting personal growth and politics, this update of Common Sense likewise can renew hope and inspire action.

Common Sense persuaded colonial Americans in 1776 to fight for independence. Without Paine’s essay, historians agree, the American Revolution would have failed for lack of public support. Kings and other masters, Paine argued, unduly claim for themselves the right to decide our future for us. He believed that an abuse of power calls into question the right of the abuser to hold power. Those suffering abuses have a natural right and a moral duty to reject their abusers.

Similarly, we have a right and duty to examine our personal habits and look into why we worship our rulers. Do we create governments to rule us so we can avoid responsibility for ruling ourselves? In this book we’ll expose what I call authority addiction. We’ll see how our hidden fears drive us to sacrifice liberty for security.

In the pages ahead, we’ll see how a global sense of our natural interactivity empowers us to evolve the habits of personal and social responsibility that can sustain democracy and world peace. Indeed, I’ll assert, peace and democracy are personal growth issues.

I began writing Global Sense after the “9/11” attacks in 2001, yet the ideas voiced in the book have been evolving within me for three decades. The writing therefore contains subtle layers of meaning that I hope reveal new delights each time you read the book.

My most difficult task in updating Common Sense was expressing Thomas Paine’s love for freedom and democracy while shifting his passionate call for national war into a compassionate call for world peace. I’ve been transformed by writing this book. My prayer is that you will be transformed by reading it.

Like Paine, I’ve chosen to avoid personal comments about today’s leaders in this essay, placing principles before personalities. Neither praise nor blame of living persons changes our current situation.

Also, I see no need for pressuring anyone into agreeing with me. Those who now feel hostile to global thinking might one day come to adopt this worldview on their own, unless, as Paine warned, "too much pain is bestowed on their conversion."

The cause of peaceful democracy is the cause of all humankind. The outcomes of pivotal events in society and the world today affect the interests of all who care about sustaining life on earth.

Paine wrote, "Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal.... Laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all [hu]mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every [hu]man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling."

Regardless of gender, race, religion, class, or party, a call of alarm for the future of freedom is long overdue. Among those working to rebuild hope for democracy and world peace, gratefully stands,

Judah Freed,
Denver, Colorado
2006

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Excerpted from GLOBAL SENSE: Awakening Your Personal Power for Demcoracy and World Peace (an update of Common Sense) by Judah Freed. (c) 2006 by Judah Freed.