Cowgirl In The City

“O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old worldis overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the glove. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her–Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.”

-Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Here, Here fine man! What spirit! What balls!

(bare with me, I have an intense case of cabin-fever after endless exam studies and a modicum of sleep. I’m a few cigarette breaks short of lunacy)

This vehement passage–ever so flavorful, wise, and inspiring–dances off the page in a Charleston jitter leaving red, white and blue footprints all over the monochromatic text: impassioned and bold like Big Red Gum. As an Enlightenment thinker, Thomas Paine dove beneath the hazy grounds of accepted tradition and myth, and climbed through the labyrinthine jungles of innovative thought. The Enlightenment was based on the use of human reason in eradicating commonly-accepted poisons that had no business in the modern world. Britain’s foreign monarchy had no place especially in a virgin country like America, untainted by feudalism and other corruptive institutions. Religious fugitives, the oppressed, and other pioneers that hailed a boat over to America all sought a better, liberalized life.

Adventurous and unsatisfied with life on the other side of the choppy ocean, America developed an attitude somewhat similar to that of a teenage mallrat. The rebellious youth with his baggy jeans, piercings, and a fondness for Metallica, rebelliously fled from home to avoid both his strenuous chore list and early curfew. But more importantly, he left to prove that when forced under the power of a strict or unjust authority, he has the right to escape. Like the mall–chaotic by nature, colossal in size–America’s vast frontier and open-armed acceptance made it an oasis for the estranged and the strange alike.

Thomas Paine recognized the country’s unique popular makeup as well as a speckle of underlying revolutionary lust. It was high time for the world to see new principles, ideologies, and political movements arise, especially in the wake of Enlightenment mind wizardry that drove human thought above and beyond! Paine states, “The present time, likewise, is that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once, viz. the time of forming itself into a government. Most nations have let slip the opportunity, and by that means have been compelled to receive laws from their conquerors, instead of making laws for themselves.”

Using wise Common Sense and lyrically evocative language, Paine called for an American Revolt against the British Monarchy–America’s most daunted playground bully. His pamphlet soared through American colonies like germs spread through a Kindergarten class, making his piece one of, if not the biggest, nudge towards the American Revolution.

It’s writing that is honest and true. Writing that throws unjustified British government overboard and, through its keystone Enlightenment thought, restores man’s capacity as a power-house. It’s writing that speaks in a reverent way like a Priest bellowing on a pulpit, writing that pulsates with an electrical force so cyntillating it could bring skeletons in a grave back to life. It makes you hop out of your seat with energetic force–you’re ready to move– like you did at senior prom when you heard the Cha Cha Slide’s beginning to beat through the speakerbox. It makes you want to throw up your sturdy fists and revolt against homework, the norm, carbs- anything and everything that might be holding you back. It’s writing that touches you with its thoughtful, passionate ideal.

( I have a final for “Writing the Revoution” due this week so mind my revolutionary zest these next couple of days…)