第1461期：常识缺失的年代，人人都应该重读《常识》。

今天是美国的“托马斯·潘恩日”，纪念美国的立国先驱之一Thomas Paine.

美利坚合众国的国名 The United Stated of America 就是他的提议。

潘恩留给后世最伟大的遗产是他在1776年写的一个小册子，只有47页。但这本小册子出版后，产生的社会影响不亚于一颗核弹，当时的美国人几乎人手一本。这本小书启发了当时的美国大众心智，用中国大陆语文说就是“统一了思想”，被公认为彻底改变了美国的历史进程，至今仍是美国发行量第一的出版物。

今天我们就来聊聊这本伟大的小书：Common Sense 《常识》

全书分四章：

I. Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, With Concise Remarks on the English Constitution

政府的起源与设计、英国宪法（历数英国国王和议会之恶）

II. Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession

论君主和世袭制的害处（讨论新美国需要什么样的政体）

III. Thoughts on the Present State of American Affairs

对目前美国形势的思考（分析美国的现状）

IV. On the Present Ability of America, With Some Miscellaneous Reflections

对目前美国能力的思考（畅想新美国的未来）

下面用几句引言来提炼一下这本书的主旨（key points），翻译略:

Government’s purpose was to serve the people.
Paine described government as a “necessary evil” which existed to give people a structure so they could work together to solve problems and prosper. But to do that, it had to be responsive to people’s needs. The British system, Paine argued, failed at that, because it gave the monarchy and nobles in Parliament too much power to thwart the people’s elected representatives.
Having a king was a bad idea.
“In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places, which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears.”
America as the home of the free.
“Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families.”
America’s real connection was to people everywhere who yearned to escape oppression.
“This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe.”
America had a rare opportunity to create a new nation based on self-rule.
The moment in history was “that peculiar time, which never happens to a nation but once,” he wrote.
A strong central government was needed.
Paine envisioned that the new nation would have a strong central government, with a constitution that protected individual rights, including freedom of religion.

Online reading（在线免费阅读全文）:

Thomas Paine died on June 8, 1809, in New York City.

每年的6月8日是Thomas Paine Day，也叫 Freethinkers Day, 纪念这位伟大的先驱托马斯·潘恩。

什么是常识？

我想起陈丹青说过的一句话，大意是——几十年过去了，十年浩劫这么反人类的事，还在讨论它正确不正确。这些都是常识，象分辩食物与屎一样容易。