Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Ouf-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine [Paperback]

 

 

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These are the books that try an history professor's patience. And having said that, I say now that nothing of greater veracity, nor consequence, concerning the management, (or mismanagement), and exercise of the subject of history, in the fumbling hands of an impish, doe-eyed, Reebok-wearing commentary idol, has been uttered since early breakfast this morning.

TV's living ping-pong ball and Radio/TV commentator, Glenn Beck, has written a work entitled, Common Sense. And, yes, that title has been used before by another author who, though not American by birth, did have an affection for the Good `Young' USA, which did, I am quite certain, match Mr. Beck's affection for the Good `Old' USA, by both stentorian timber and tone.

He, Mr. Beck, has offered us a moderately priced reworking of Mr. Paine's exposition of the same name. Beck is a man of opinions and, in Common Sense, Beck has collected together some of the most critical issues of this very moment in time, and offered his calculation as to how we should confront these issues - if confrontation is the resulting sum of his calculation - and resolve them.

There is a sense of urgency found in Glenn Beck's Common Sense. That sense of urgency is found there because Beck wishes it to be there. He fears there are, in Washington, men and women of good intention, mucking about with bad notions of how to better all that works in America; and solve all the does not. He believes that much of what is wrong with America will, if left untreated and unaddressed, metastasize from its originating source, and move through the various branches and bureaus, until mere bad notions become cemented into bad law. There is found here, in his nervous, ping-pongish quality of urgency, something truly of merit; and something, believe it or not, of substance.

This is, in a way, an updating of sorts, of the Common Sense written by Thomas Paine anonymously in January of 1776. Paine's work helped initiate the War of Independence, and has been described by some as the singular spark that set off the American Revolution. Thomas Paine's next great treatise, "The Crisis," kept the revolutionary war going at a point when many thought it lost. It is "The Crisis" and not "Common Sense" that begins quite beautifully:

» THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. «

"The Crisis," was an extemporaneous work written on an overturned skin of bass drum, during the freezing midwinter of 1776. Common Sense was, quite sensibly, not.

What Thomas Paine created in Common Sense was a truly brilliant work of propaganda. To the American who'd had enough of this colonial status, the work inspired - among other virtues - a desire for American independence, a desire for American liberty and for republican ideals. A craving for written and understood individuated freedoms, and for the understood nobility found in fighting for a just cause. That Christmas Eve night in 1776, when General George Washington had parked his 4,600 troops on bank of the Delaware River, he had his aide-de-camp read aloud, not from The Crisis, but from Common Sense, the Paine treatise owning words that lit a brilliant patriotic fire in all 4,600 bellies.

On that particular evening, those words worked some kind fantastic magic; and proved a worth greater than guns alone. From General Washington's own lips came his estimation of treatise's worth:

» My countrymen, I know from [the British] form of government, and [their soldier's] steady attachment heretofore to royalty[. They] will come reluctantly into the idea of independency, but time and persecution brings many wonderful things to pass, and by private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find Common Sense is working a powerful change there in the minds of many men. «

That brilliant, and beautifully illuminating fire, the one that was sparked to life by Paine's words, brought to those soldiers, on the very next day, and for many days to follow, many, many brilliant victories. Christmas Day, 1776, was a truly marvelous day for America.

Paine's Common Sense was of incalculable value to the men who fought the balance of the American Revolution. Pamphlets aplenty followed with the same general lilt, furthering the brave men on with their Rah Rah! Go Get `Em, Boys! content, but no treatise did more to bring about, and SUSTAIN, the fighting spirit for America's Independence from Great Britain than did Paine's exhilarating Common Sense. Can Glenn Beck's Common Sense do what so many did not?

I had expected ebullience, but very little else than that. I had expected something close to a transcribed tirade of his; one on each issue of interest. Ten or twelve chapters, and each beginning with Glenn Beck's doom + gloom studded rants (over the 9th circuit, or the misadventures of some junior congressman who strayed too far into the rough, and then casually mumbled something about socialized something or other) and each concluding with the long awaited blood shooting from Mr. Beck periwinkle blue eyes. Silliness, but now on the printed page.

I am never so pleased than when my ugly expectations are shown to be dead wrong; and all were quite wrong, for this is a rather thoughtful, and readable treatise on the state of affairs in the USA. Bravo, Mr. Beck.

He has, in my estimation, written a very passionate, and deeply honest work. A work that is, as advertised, written by Glenn Beck. These ARE the opinions of Mr. Beck; the estimations as he takes a hard look at a country he obviously loves, and feels is becoming less lovable; less recognizable, election by election, vote by vote.

Neither party is immune from Mr. Beck's criticism. He challenges all those who truly love America to reject party labels and name themselves "patriots." Guilty are those who attempt to subvert America from what the Founding Fathers had initially created. And guilty, too, are those who abide such subversive governance; allowing laws to be passed, judges to be confirmed, without vigorous opposition. As a conservative, Beck is most brutal when he is chastising his own family.

The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights can total fewer than 10 pages. These are the foundations for the workings of the greatest experiment in republican democracy. Glenn Beck believes the further America moves from the Founder's interpretation of the Constitution, the further America moves from being America. He makes this point from differing points of attack; most often when questioning the role that government should have - or lack - when there is no mention of it in the US Constitution.

Should health care should remain a private enterprise, where Medicaid and Medicare remain the only two primary governmental organizations providing healthcare for the poor; or should the whole system be scraped for one imitating the one which we "enjoy" in Canada.

There is wit to be found in Glenn Beck's Common Sense. His opinions are strong, but well substantiated, and, in the midst of reading this short book, I found myself responding to Beck most often in one of four ways. All readers should be prepared to:

(a) Furrow Brows, Curse the text, Fling the Book Hither and Yon
(b) Furrow Brows, Scratch noodle, Run to Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia Set
(c) Raise Brows, Grin BIG, Snatch Pen, Underline + Scribble as in One's History 101 Text
(d) Raise Brows, Giggle/Titter/Snort/Snicker/Guffaww, Snatch Pen + Underline

This is, foremost, an engaging book. It is a book full of those issues about which we are chatting today; everywhere in North America: the nature of governmental control vs. the private sector, the government as corporate watchdog vs. the government's previous task as watchdog and resulting failure to act in the past, and whether culture in America, (and for that matter, Canada), is growing up or atrophying - - and taking the minds of our youth down and out with it.

Truly, such a book could be as dull as an assigned college text, but Glenn Beck has become a rockstar of sorts, and certainly not because he offers a dull presentation. Beck make issues interesting to the uninterested, and wholly comprehensible to the lightest intellectual slug. Most significantly, Beck is able to make the issues relevant to the reader - - irrespective of age, nationality, or political inclination. Does the Beck shtick work on the printed page? Indeed, it does. And Glenn Beck's wit and energy is laced throughout Common Sense.

Common Sense is a clever read. The book is humorous and challenging, sometimes infuriating, always fascinating and very pertinent for this very day.

dma.6.16.2009
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This is a "MUST" read !
An eye opener well written. Thanks Glenn !

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