Europe, the Savage Mother

       In Thomas Paine's Common Sense, he explains to those living in America that having their own government is their natural right. He gives reasons for how it's America's right to have independence from Britain, like how not even one third of the American population is British. In the same way, since Britain claims to have the right to govern America, France has the right to govern Britain. Paine also argues that Europe, rather than Britain, is the mother country of America. Europe and Britain, whichever one may argue is the mother country, are to considered like savages or cannibals. Referring to economic and social destruction of America due to England's injustices, Paine writes, "Then the more shame upon her conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families." The injustices of these savage mothers are so severe that he compares them to the innocence found in prostitution.

       Paine claims that America is under the oppression of her mother country, yet "a government of our own is our natural right." He calls those living in America not to be passive towards the oppression, even if it doesn't happen to them. America stands as a symbol of freedom to the entire world. He writes, "There are...tens of thousands, who would think it glorious to expel from the continent that barbarous and hellish power." This is similar to the ideas Immanuel Kant writes in "What is Enlightenment?" As Americans need to take the responsibility of releasing themselves from oppression,  Kant explains that man needs free itself from self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage symbolizes the bondage of the great evil, which is to attain and regurgitate the ideas of another. As Americans must find freedom from oppression, man must release himself from this self-incurred mindset.

Did some Americans fall right back into self-incurred tutelage by acquiring the the ideas of Kant and other Enlightenment thinkers, since one is to have his own reasonable opinions?