Hello, thank you for joining me today for Give Him 15. The title of today's post is It's Just Common Sense.

I'm often reminded of Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense, when thinking about today's battle to restore America. This writing was so

compelling that George Washington required all of his troops to read it as they faced the

challenges of being outmanned, outgunned, and undersupplied. No doubt about it, Payne's pamphlet was a key part of motivating

America's patriots to fight for freedom. Payne's choice of this title was as deliberate as the arguments

inside it. The phrase was designed to frame the question of

independence as something obvious, universal, and within reach of every reader, not reserved for

scholars and politicians. By naming his work, Common Sense, Payne signaled that he would

demonstrate to ordinary people that the case for breaking with Britain rested on practical

judgment and shared human experience, not on aristocratic theory.

The title revealed that the pamphlet was a voice for a broad audience.

Payne wrote in plain language, deliberately avoiding the highbrow jargon of political essays. He wanted farmers, tradesmen,

artisans, and laborers to grasp his arguments without waiting through numerous footnotes and

Latin phrases. The choice of common sense promised clarity

and the kind of reasoning that anyone,

regardless of education, could recognize as reasonable.

By appealing to the common logic of his readers, Payne bypassed the elites and framed independence

as a decision rooted in everyday practicality.

Got it.

The phrase also implied shared ideals.

Common sense referred to the practical knowledge a community relied on to govern itself in ordinary life.

Pain adopted this notion to contend that the colony's separation from Britain was not a radical

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