progressivism, individualism, and the public ... - Telmarc Group

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The Telmarc Group PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL Skinner places Hobbes in an historical context and at the same time detailing the ever present issue of what makes a free man. Hobbes is an apologist for the central authority, in contrast to Locke and the other who follow. The whole basis of our Revolution in the United States was freedom as being free from Government oppression and oversight. Hobbes justifies that alternative view, albeit in a less than convincing manner. Yet why Hobbes and why today? Liberty and freedom are concepts near and dear to the United States and its founding fathers. They for the most part rejected Hobbes and followed Locke. Freedom is why people came to the United States, why it separated from England and why it has come to where it is today. In many ways we may be losing that view. Yes, Health Care is important, but not to the point at which we lose that freedom. Yes, the economy is important, and again not to the point of losing freedom. 4.2 THOMAS PAINE Thomas Paine was a key player in the American Revolution and the writer of Common Sense 63 . In a manner of speaking, he was, along with Madison, Jefferson and Hamilton, the key Public Intellectuals of the time. The problem, however, was that the three Founders were independently well off whereas Paine was chronically indigent. This may explain his evolution into a Progressive, and in some ways the first American Progressive. Paine not only did his work at no charge but he gave what money he made to the Revolutionary cause. Paine was a true believer in independence from the king, people ruling themselves, and a community of people fighting for a common cause. Paine took the Revolution to heart. His Common Sense and other writing were truly mandates to rebel, to revolt, to separate. They, on the one hand, demonstrated the need to stand apart and at the same time stand together. Paine was a progressive in his view of community, the group, and government. He was disappointed in the U.S. Government in not providing him more than it did. As indicated he was not an independently wealthy man and after the Revolution was wandering a bit until he found a cause again in the French Revolution. Here he found the intensity of the true progressive, the nation founded on brotherhood, equality, freedom, where the governing body comes from the common man. Regrettably he did not see the Terror before it arrived. Yet his writings in this period are his progressive writings. 4.2.1 Constitutionalist An integral part of this effort was a Constitution, a statement of basic principles. Paine wrote the following regarding a constitution: A constitution is not a thing in name only, but in fact. 63 There are many biographies of Paine but the one I relied upon the most is that by A. J. Ayer, the famous philosopher. Ayer has a sharp and crisp understanding of Paine that goes well beyond the historian or more popular type writer. Page 64
The Telmarc Group PROGRESSIVISM, INDIVIDUALISM, AND THE PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL It has not an ideal, but a real existence; and wherever it cannot be produced in a visible form, there is none. A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution. The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting its government. It is the body of elements, to which you can refer, and quote article by article; and which contains the principles on which the government shall be established, the manner in which it shall be organised, the powers it shall have, the mode of elections, the duration of Parliaments, or by what other name such bodies may be called; the powers which the executive part of the government shall have; and in fine, everything that relates to the complete organisation of a civil government, and the principles on which it shall act, and by which it shall be bound. A constitution, therefore, is to a government what the laws made afterwards by that government are to a court of judicature. The court of judicature does not make the laws, neither can it alter them; it only acts in conformity to the laws made: and the government is in like manner governed by the constitution. It is worth recalling these things from time to time. 4.2.2 The Progressive Thomas Paine is often thought solely as the initial match which helped set off the fires of Revolution in the Colonies. He was beloved by Franklin, and was highly thought of by many in the new country. Yet upon the completion of the establishment of the United States, Paine set off to do the same in France. It was at this time in his writings that he entered what I shall term hid Progressive phase. It was Progressive in that he saw a society, a role for Government, and a set of goals that the combination of society and government could reach. As the CAP authors also state in their aforementioned work on Progressive thought in the late 19th century: "Writing at the height of the New Deal reform era, John Dewey explained the progressive view of liberty as a continuation of historic movements for human liberation: Page 65
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The Telmarc Group and the Progressi
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