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Here's my latest post via Medium... About a month ago, back in those heady days when all we had to worry about in British politics was whether the current incumbent of №10 Downing Street was going to wriggle out of the ‘Partygate’ scandal (ah… such innocent times when that was the only cloud in my coffee) I stumbled upon this quotation and thought: the author must be talking about Boris Johnson. Here’s the quote:
Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions. But no! It was not a 2022 quotation but one coined by Thomas Paine in his 1776 pamphlet Common Sense, criticising King George III and the way the British government was unfairly dealing with what were then the 13 American Colonies. Paine’s pamphlet went on to sell 500,000 copies, which was pretty good going considering the colonies’ total population at that time was just two million and went on to earn Paine the title of ‘Father of the American Revolution’. This doesn’t stop Paine's words being a perfect description of Boris Johnson — 250 years later and the criticism of the patrician ‘Establishment’ is still as valid today as it was in the middle of the 18th century. Although thinking about it, Paine’s words also neatly describe Vladimir Putin as, coming from the old Soviet KGB/Apparatchik establishment, Putin quite clearly sees himself as ‘born to reign and others to obey’, as well as being divorced from the reality of the real world. Who Thomas Paine you ask? Paine was an English political activist born in Thetford, Norfolk in 1737 — his statue is located about 30 miles from where I’m sitting typing this story. He emigrated to North America in 1774, with the assistance of Benjamin Franklin and, along with his radical pamphlets, Paine also negotiated with the French to raise some 16 million livres (a former French currency) to help fund the American Revolution and pay George Washington’s army. During these years Paine also worked with Thomas Jefferson on drafting the US Declaration of Independence. He then briefly returned to England and began writing in support of the French Revolution. His 1791 book Rights of Man sold nearly one million copies but resulted in him being accused by the British government and subsequently convicted in absentia in the High Court of seditious libel, an offence that at that time carried the death penalty. Wisely Paine had escaped the jurisdiction and was living in France where, thanks to his celebrity and despite the fact he couldn’t speak a word of French, he was granted honorary French citizenship, was elected to the National Convention and selected as one of the committee responsible for drafting the constitution for the French Republic. But, this was the time of the Reign of Terror and Paine found himself denounced as an enemy of the people by Robespierre and only escaped the guillotine as a result of a clerical error. Eventually the American Minister (ambassador) in France convinced the authorities that Paine was an American citizen and in 1802, after more reversals of fortune in France, returned to live in the United States Paine died in 1809, at the age of 72, at Grove Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, but by then he had either outlived or alienated his old friends and allies. Even his church — the Quakers — refused to have him buried in their graveyard so in the end he was buried beneath a walnut tree on land he owned, with just six mourners attending his funeral. Much later the American lawyer and writer Robert Green Ingersoll wrote of Paine: Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred — his virtues denounced as vices — his services forgotten — his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death. Naturally, this being a story written by me, there has to be a weird angle and it doesn’t get any more weird with Thomas Paine because in 1819 (10 years after his death) the English agrarian radical journalist William Cobbett dug up his bones and had them transported back to England with the intention to give Paine a heroic reburial on his native soil. This never came to pass. The bones were still among Cobbett’s effects when he died over 15 years later but were later lost. There is no confirmed story about what happened to them after that. Obscure Factoid: Thomas Paine also designed bridges and actually obtained a British patent for a single-span iron bridge — the patent was put into use in a bridge erected over the River Wear at Sunderland.
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Charles Christian was an English barrister, Reuters correspondent-turned editor, author, blogger, podcaster, award-winning tech journalist, storyteller, and sometime werewolf hunter, who sadly passed away in 2022.
Prior to his sudden death he completed one of his largest works to date: The Witches Almanac, the definitive guide on the history of magic and folklore, including 359 of the most important witches and sorcerers in history. This site also has links to Charles' books and the Weird Tales Show videos and podcasts. Latest Video PostLatest book: The Wold Newton TriangleVirtual Tip JarYou can now support Urban Fantasist, its podcasts and its new video channel through our Virtual Tip Jars on PayPal and Patreon, giving you a choice of ad hoc or regular payments.
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