Obama quotes French Revolutionary at length...

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

...even if, as ever, he doesn't get a namecheck: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.speech.sources/
(Hey, I love Tom Paine, and if you're going to count Marat as a 'French' Revolutionary, then Tom Paine, Honourary French Citizen and Deputy to the Convention for Pas-de-Calais (can't help feeling that must have pissed Robespierre off just that little bit more!) deserves the title, too).

Comments

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

I thought it sounded familiar... I definitely called the "rights of man" part though.

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

I knew there was something when I heard a mention of "virtue" in his speech.

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

Wait a moment... Obama quoted Thomas Paine? As in, the Thomas Paine from the Epic Ideological Struggle vs. Edmund Burker? As in, the Edmund Burke being the main reference of Tatcher?

Wow.

My friends, something just happened. Something that really must be celebrated.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

I'm excited - and I'm usually so cynical about contemporary politicians!

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

:D~!

[misatheredpanda.livejournal.com]

&hearts Even though I'm sure he was quoting Paine as an American revolutionary rather than French - since we all seem to want him for ourselves, too! (Okay, I can't really judge since I was mysteriously never formally taught about the American Revolution in school, and I'm not very well read on the subject, so I don't know how Paine actually stands according to history here - but I can say that his is one of the names that I've recognised since childhood - as a national hero. So I don't know if it's just me or not, but I didn't blink at Obama quoting him. Not that I'm complaining of course, because in any case Paine is brilliant! And I definitely take it as a good sign.)

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

http://www.marksteelinfo.com/audiovideo/audio/ThomasPaine.mp3

For the fun version. Better than Trevor Griffith's play 'These are the Times', which completely missed Paine's wry tone of voice!

And, joy of joys, stuff about him in tomorrow's papers, too! About bloody time!

I think it's fairly clear that America hasn't given him his due because of the atheism (more accurately, Deism): even Obama didn't name him - but maybe the mainstream will pay more attention now!

[wolfshadow713.livejournal.com]

I noticed the references to The Crisis when I listened to the speech...I was quite glad to hear it. Obama made a point of making reference to the Enlightenment philosophies on which the US was founded in a time when that seems overlooked. But then again, his background is in Constitutional law, which means he should be well-acquainted with the country's founding principles and appreciate why they're still relevant (or else, why study constitutional law?).

(An irrelevant side note: When I was in middle school, they did such a good job at explaining the British side of the American revolution that my sentiments became shockingly loyalist...then in high school I read Paine and that convinced me on the necessity of the American independence.)

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

There has been (thankfully) a re-examination of the 18thc 'first principles' recently - I've noticed it here with the establishment of things like the Euston Group who very explicitly say the mainstream left should return to the core values of the 18thc Revolutions. It's a means of taking it to a point before Stalinism dirtied the waters, I suppose. Right now - (good timing!) - there's an exhibition on Civil Liberties at the British Library that includes Paine, and I'm delighted he's getting attention again.I was surprised to see some of my Facebook friends cheering about it too - all these closet Paine fans! I've been doing my (pathetically small) bit - every time Dickie Attenborouh comes on the radio I email in to ask about his never-made Tom Paine film project, and I also asked 'why no Paine?' when the John Adams director was on (he said, oh, very sadly, some characters had to be left out - well, I hope they're regretting that now!).

I've a theory that the reason why Britain hasn't managed to have a proper revolution since the 1640's/50's is because before and after that date, radicals would flee to (or be deported to!) the New World: America acted as the valve on the pressure cooker, so to speak - America's gain is our loss!
(On that theory, the incredibly oversimplified and inaccurate (but left-leaning, so I shouldn't really complain) film 'Cromwell' was on this weekend, and it begins with the Cromwell family with their bags packed, literally, ready to move to America: "but you can't go now! The King has recalled Parliament! Now is our chance to change things here!").