Lewes Forum thread

Go on, tell 'em what you think

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Reputation is what men and women think of us;

On 28 Oct 2016 at 11:02am RIOT wrote:

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us. Thomas Paine
"Possibly the most influential writer in modern human history" - that's the billing Thomas Paine got from one of his biographers.
It's 200 years since the British-born "father of the American revolution" died. His words also helped shape modern Britain and France and yet few people know much about him at all.
Actor & Writer Kenneth Griffith (A Night to Remember; The Wild Geese; Who Dares Wins; The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain) wrote and performed this documentary about the life and political struggles of Thomas Paine, writer of such works as 'The Rights of Man' & 'Common Sense'. Paine (1737-1809) was born in Thetford, Norfolk, and was originally a stay-maker for women's corsets and then a custom's officer, before after losing his job for trying to secure better pay and conditions for his fellow workers, eventually devoted his life to his search for freedom of speech and liberty for all, becoming in the process, a much-revered or despised (depending on which side of the Atlantic you were on) political activist, author, political theorist and revolutionary, and most significantly as a friend and comrade of early American leaders like George Washington & Benjamin Franklin, helping, through his bold, enlightened vison of the true meaning of democracy, to lay the foundations for the modern United States, a name which he himself coined!. This unforgettable film, widely regarded as Kenneth Griffith's masterpiece, does justice at last to the memory of one of Britain's finest sons.
SEE LINK..

Watch the video »

On 28 Oct 2016 at 1:17pm Bloke wrote:

It's hard to think of someone else who's ideas have brought more strife and unhappiness into the world.

On 28 Oct 2016 at 2:55pm Clifford wrote:

Oh come on Bloke, even within living memory Bush and Blair devastated Iraq and brought absolute chaos to the Middle East. And neither of them could write a decent book.