Paine’s common sense was a democratic resource against established power

Evidence

The very thing that is at stake here—common sense—is also a resource for protecting democracy against conspiracism. It always has been. The idea of common sense has a political history rooted in the philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, inserted into the Declaration of Independence in the form of “self-evident truths,” and popularized in the most important American revolutionary tract, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Paine’s great pamphlet offers us a model of common sense as the basis of democracy and as the touchstone of resistance—in his case against the malignant normality of colonial rule. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 308

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts Gramsci’s common-sense-as-hegemonic-condition — here common sense is the anti-hegemonic resource; echoes the discarded claim about pro-establishment common sense. — connects to: Common sense is a political resource against the imposition of a ruler’s single reality. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 290; The Common Rule emerged from a democratic struggle against governmental behavioral modification. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1004; Common sense has served as democratic resistance since the American revolution — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 308 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Recovery of common sense’s Enlightenment pedigree, through ‘self-evident truths’ and Paine.

Broader Connections

• Common sense has served as democratic resistance since the American revolution #expands (0.90) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 308
• Appeals to common sense and proportion serve reigning power, not truth #contradicts (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 84
• The powerful preach contentment and dismiss rule as too hard for commoners #complicates (0.80) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 172
• Common sense is a key route to hegemonic power in democracies #complicates (0.75)
• The Common Rule emerged from a democratic struggle against governmental behavioral modification. #responds-to (0.70) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1004