i think historical internal squabbles within the anglo-american empire have their place in understanding how the center of empires can shift without the character of the empire changing. that being said, i think i'm going to have a hard time reading this paine thing without rolling my eyes.

i mean, he's a liberal, right. but he's one of those early naive liberals that actually believed in the inherent goodness of humans, and so he's no doubt going to say a lot of things that are going to appeal to the communist in me, even while knowing he's going to ruin it all with a bunch of out to lunch economics. you want to go along with the dream, but your brain knows the idea is doomed from the start. it's still the beginning of a discussion.

so, i'm kind of not sure how i feel about just shredding this to pieces, but i kind of expect he's going to piss me off enough that i'll have to.