We have heard the Rights of Man called a levelling system; but the only system to which the word levelling is truly applicable, is the hereditary monarchical system.
Thomas Paine: “We have heard the Rights of Man called a levelling system; but the only system to which the word levelling is truly…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine counters the criticism that "Rights of Man" is a levelling system by arguing that hereditary monarchy is the true leveller, reducing all to the same authority regardless of merit.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
I have no idea, considering the reforms which are now passing and spreading throughout Europe, that England will permit herself to be the last; and where the occasion and the opportunity quietly offer, it is better than to wait for a…
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
Discussion and the general will arbitrates the question, and to this, private opinion yields with a good grace, and order is preserved uninterrupted.