For Posterity

One thing that has struck me about Thomas Paine's writing is how often he appeals to posterity. Frequently he argues that the descendants of his generation deserve better than the status quo would bequeath them. He muses about what future Americans will think of the Loyalist faction and the institution of slavery. One of Pain's primary arguments against monarchy is the idea that "virtue is not hereditary." Even if a king could make a convincing claim to be favored by God and ordained as ruler for life, Paine contends, there is no reason that man should be succeeded by his own son.

Paine saw the Revolution as an unprecedented opportunity, a chance to create something that had never existed in human history. He wanted his generation to stand up and assume self-governance. They had the chance to do so, he wrote, and they owed it to future generations to create a legacy they could be proud of. Creating an independent republic would be a monumental achievement in the course of human events, not merely politically but also in terms of the prosperity America might attain without the burden of British colonial control.

At this juncture, we ought to adopt Paine's stance toward the future. America is in a unique position in terms of its own history and in international politics. We have at least a few more years as the uncontested global superpower, and we should use those years to lead. By that I mean abandoning our atrocious adventure 'spreading democracy' around the world and taking initiative on environmental and social policy. The Bush administration has embarrassed us in a lot of ways, not least by sleeping on the job as the global economy collapsed. There's a long list of things the new administration has to fix, from ending torture to restoring oversight of the economy. Hopefully when they act, they will do so with the same sense of urgency and obligation to posterity that Paine had.