“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.”
Bad habits of thought cloud our judgement and our ability to perceive what is right.
Comments by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan this week reflect back to Thomas Paine’s words. Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya at a United National Climate Change Conference, Annan warned that continued inaction in coming to terms with the reality of global warming and climate change threaten grave consequences for global security.
From health to food supply to coastal flooding and raging weather rarely seen before, the long habit of thinking our current ways of doing business in this world poses no threat for the future - the near future - can only be superficial and not a reflection of the true nature of our situation.
Such issues were not even imagined in Tom Paine’s day. The Industrial Revolution had barely begun. And while Paine railed against organized religion, he professed a belief in God. And he found his God in nature. What would he think today as he watched our headlong descent into fouling the very expression of God, and thus the very foundation of civilization?
One Comment
Congrats, kudos, and “I hate you” all rolled into one.
I have been a huge fan of Tom Paine, and when I went online to create my blog, I wanted to use, Commonsense, ThomasPaine, etc. Unsurprisingly, they were all taken. Tom Paine was one of the most revolutionary thinkers in human history, in fact I place him above the Greek luminaries, but he is little recognized and less quoted than they. Great job!
Jon
P.S. I only hate you for doing a better job at the blog than I. It’s a good hate, honest.
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[...] A recent post at ThomasPaineBlogging.com comments on the recent remarks from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at an international conference on climate change and global warming. I could talk about it here, but I think Thomas Paine says it best. [...]
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