Mark Steel: Thomas Paine 1 of 6

A lighthearted look at an Englishman who changed the world. Key: Tom Paine Payne Open University American Revolution Consitution Age of Reason Rights of Man

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Humanities
• Engineering
• Economics

[MenOfLetters]

Mark Steel is a torchbearer of Tom Paine's legacy, a determind foe of clericalism and militarism. Funny too.

[fjordland]

@MenOfLetters: Idealists are getting thin on the ground these days, we do have plenty of fear-mongers though.

[Nades129]

WHAT! why the fuck is this 3 stars!

[fjordland]

Right wing rating Bots, they tell me.

[SciPanFreethinker5]

Meh, the creationists hate education.

[Mulholland107]

@zjohn89 Mark never said he was an atheist, he states what his contemporaries said of him, that he was accused of atheism, which is true. 

[blackamoor61]

I hate how modern lefties like Steel have hijacked Paine for their own ends and how right-wingers flock to Burke in knee jerk opposition to him . Paine was neither right nor left , nor an atheist . He was, put simply the greatest political thinker ever in the west. Paine was serial debunker of self-serving establishment myths who offered practical, common sense solutions to the issues of the day, an enemy of big government and champion of the little guy vs the state. No wonder he died poor.

[zjohn89]

Thomas Paine was not an Atheist. He was a Deist. Instead of listening to this moron go read his books, they are very educational.

[fistfulofknowledge]

Poor Paine, if only his vision of the world had at least existed in one of the two revolutions. Too radical for the American, not radical enough for the French. He truly is one of the fathers of wisdom and common sense

[TheIngloriousFiction]

Doing an essay on Thomas Paine for year 12 history and this was so helpful!

[GoblinXXX]

I love this guy.

[RhondaH]

This is fantastic. Can't wait to watch the rest.

[greenjoker713]

Right Wingers are two things: cowardly and reactionary. They retreat behind vote bots and ad hominem attacks because they know their arguments are flaccid when confronted with reason and logic. Thank you for posting The Mark Steel lectures for us "traitors to the Crown" (Reference to Thomas Paine, a sadly forgotten Founding Father) to enjoy. Shame American PBS does not produce something like this.