Would Thomas Paine Have Survived The NSA?

 Reflections on “Independence Day” Amidst the Surveillance State

the author debates history (Bordentown, NJ - 4/27/13)

The debates spawned by the Snowden NSA domestic spying disclosures have cast a long shadow on this year’s “Independence Day”, forcing reflection on the importance of dissent, freedom of conscience, freedom of the press, freedom of association, and freedom from government control, also sometimes thought of as the right to privacy.

Snowden’s disclosures were classic whistleblower acts of conscience –  exposing massive government wrongdoing and violations of the Constitution and laws against warrantless surveillance and restrictions on NSA encroachment in domestic affairs.

The NSA domestic spying operation monitored all phone calls, emails, and internet activities, disclosing not only the “metadata” pattern of an individual’s communications, but also the content of the communications.

Yesterday, the NY Times reported that domestic surveillance even includes the monitoring of snail mail. Some mail monitoring was targeted on individuals and political groups defined by the FBI as “eco-terrorists” (for an example that it does happen here, see my prior post: Green is The New Red).

[Update – watch this presentation of the 10 stages and tactics corporations have used to manufacture “domestic terrorist” rhetorical and legal frameworks for targeting animal rights and environmental activist – and the story, “From Activist to Terrorist” – scary.]

But long prior to Snowden’s disclosures, there have been numerous troubling reports of  FBI and Homeland Security abuses, including infiltration and spying on domestic political groups.

Other credible reports suggest that Homeland Security was involved in monitoring and even coordinating the national crackdown on the Occupy Wall Street Movement (outrageous and illegal tactics that take us back to the days of “Cointelpro” and the Church Committee).

I personally have witnessed the repressive tactics and experienced abuses by the Surveillance State – [and been manhandled by police repression,  part of crushing the Occupy Movement].

In regard to first hand experience with “Homeland Security”, in 2008, I was detained by local police, photographed, and my car was illegally searched.

Days later, I was investigated – visited at my home – by FBI and US Homeland Security agents, accompanied by the Hunterdon County Prosecutor. All merely for taking photographs of what Homeland Security laws define as “critical infrastructure”  – south jersey oil refineries and chemical plants.

One investigator even went so far as to suggest that I might be  “Chechen rebel” (I was observed near a chemical plant close to a school with a backpack on). (a later FOIA request revealed I had triggered a regional FBI/Homeland Security alert, and may have involved the Fusion Center. Since then, several episodes and police stops strongly suggest I am on some kind of watch list).

It mattered not one whit to those local police and federal investigators that I was a columnist for the Star Ledger (@ NJ Voices) engaged in journalism and in political advocacy as a blogger and environmental activist. They showed nothing but contempt for my constitutional rights.

And prior to that, in 1994, I learned exactly how far government will go to crush whistleblowers who embarrass powerful high level officials, like Governor Whitman.

Which all takes me to the title of this post on “Independence Day”.

Many historians agree that Thomas Paine’s writings, pamphlets, dissent and political organizing and agitation were instrumental  in the American Revolution.

Paine’s most famous pamphlet “Common Sense” was published in January of 1776, which helped spark the Declaration of Independence later that year.

Paine worked secretly, essentially what we call today underground. He met and spoke with confidential and secret sources and had secret affiliations. He published “Common Sense” anonymously.

He had to do that because publication was treason – virtually the same  crime some have accused Snowden of, including the US government, who has indicted him under the Espionage Act.

Paine functionally was today’s equivalent of a blogger, a protester, a dissident, a political activist and organizer,  a reporter, a publisher, and a media outlet.

He stomped on some powerful toes and posed an extreme existential threat to the then established government.

Paine was the Wikileaks, Guardian, NY Times, and Snowden of his time – all rolled into one.

If King George had a domestic Colonial equivalent of the NSA, do you think there would have been any chance for Paine to actually publish “Common Sense”?

What impact would Paine’s imprisonment prior to publication have had on the Revolution?

Something to think about, as the US National Security Surveillance Police State proliferates.

Read the history:

Publication history

Thomas Paine began writing Common Sense in late 1775 under the working title of Plain Truth. With the help of Benjamin Rush, who helped edit and publish it and suggested changing the title, Paine developed his ideas into a forty-eight page pamphlet. He publishedCommon Sense anonymously because of its treasonable content. Rush recommended the printer Robert Bell and promised Paine that, where other printers might say no because of the content of the pamphlet, Bell would not hesitate nor delay its printing. Paine and Bell had a falling out, but Bell still felt strongly about printing a second edition. Bell added the phrase “Written by an Englishman” to his second edition without Paine’s permission.^[7] Paine had stressed that it was “the Doctrine, not the man” that was important. Paine wanted to remain anonymous for as long as possible and felt that even such a general phrase as Bell’s addition would take attention away from the ideas in his pamphlet.^[7]

That didn’t seem to matter, though, because printed by Bell, Common Sense sold almost 100,000 copies in 1776,^[8] and according to Paine, 120,000 copies were sold in the first three months. One biographer estimates that 500,000 copies sold in the first year (in both America and Europe – predominantly France and Britain), and another writes that Paine’s pamphlet went through twenty-five published editions in the first year alone.^[3][9] Aside from the printed pamphlet itself, there were many handwritten summaries and whole copies circulated. At least one newspaper, the Connecticutt Courant, printed the entire pamphlet in its February 19th issue (1776), and there may have been others that did the same.^[10] While it is difficult to achieve a fixed figure for the number of circulated copies, what is certain is that Paine’s words reached far and wide out to most of America’s 2.5 million colonists. His pamphlet was read at countless town meetings and gatherings even to those who could not read.

Paine managed to carefully maintain his anonymity, even during potent newspaper polemics generated by Robert Bell, for nearly three months. His name did not become officially connected with the independence controversy until March 30, 1776.^[11] He donated his royalties from Common Sense to George Washington‘s Continental Army, saying:

As my wish was to serve an oppressed people, and assist in a just and good cause, I conceived that the honor of it would be promoted by my declining to make even the usual profits of an author.^[12]

—Thomas Paine