Rights of Man

Rights of Man Analysis

Paine wants to introduce a little metacognition to the mix in American politics by broadening his reader's political opinion to a more philosophical one. Not only are they in the crux of history, he feels, but also he feels they are at a moment to make a great stride forward into a more balanced, stable form of government—but first, he has to prove that the problem isn't England or the king—it's the monarchical form of government itself.

The idea in Rights of Man is simply that each human being (although perhaps he wasn't so generic in his own philosophy necessarily) is endowed by their creator, either God or Nature, with unalienable rights pertaining to their treatment. Essentially, he feels the rights are freedom based, but government oriented. These rights include representation in the reformation of existing governments, the right to revolution in cases of severe injustice, and finally, he openly disputes the idea that royal families have some sacred, hidden wisdom passed down from generations.

That idea, that rich, powerful families weren't actually endowed with extra gifting by God, is right at the core of Rights, but it's a pretty unusual, so to some readers, it might seem irrelevant. Actually, it was a common belief among the extremely wealthy. The idea was simply that because of the luxury afforded by money, rich people could access more wisdom in life and pass wisdom down to their children. Paine observes that this argument is obviously a ludicrous invention designed by rich people to maintain power.

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