WE SUFFER in many lands on earth from the actions of our own governments. Our troubles look worse in our eyes when we see how we supplied the means of our suffering by consenting to be ruled by these bad governments. As Thomas Paine wrote,

“Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence. The palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, we would need no other lawgiver.”

Everyone heeding the universal still small voice of God within us would render all governments obsolete. Tyranny, therefore, would be pointless. Given our fears of anarchy, however, we create government by the same prudent reasoning that advises us, when faced by two evils, to choose the least evil.

One of Paine’s earliest tasks in Common Sense was explaining the nature of government. As a progressive libertarian, he believed that protecting us from force and fraud is the first purpose of government, but leaders must not use force or fraud to stay in power. Because we choose external government over internal self rule, we surrender part of our property and privacy, such as taxes and airport searches, so the state has the means to protect our possessions and our lives.

Paine said the best form of government is the one most likely to secure our freedom at the least expense.

To explain the origin of government, Paine offered a parable:

“Let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some sequestered part of the earth…. They will then represent the first peopling of any country, or of the world. In this state of natural liberty, society will be their first thought.”

Human beings are social animals innately unfit for eternal solitude. Since thousands of urges excite each person, and since people cannot satisfy all desires by themselves, the colonists soon feel bound to seek help and relief from one another. Self sufficiency is valued, yet talents are most easily noticed through service to neighbors. Adversity forges common bonds as feelings of unity arise among the settlers.

Driven by social necessity, the emigrants form a loose community. Rights and duties are spread fairly among everyone as relative equals. Whatever culture may emerge in that remote place, the blessings from mutual integrity make the limits of law and government unnecessary. The people don’t need a government, for they practice self rule. Their utopian anarchy lasts only as long as they behave themselves.

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Excerpted from GLOBAL SENSE: Awakening Your Personal Power for Democracy and World Peace (an update of Common Sense) by Judah Freed. (c) 2006 by Judah Freed.