Emily Diao | Week 9: Necessary Evil

 Emily Diao

Mrs. Smith

English 11 AP

15 January 2025

Image credit: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311678/common-sense-by-thomas-paine/

Just before the eve of the British American colonies declaring their independence, a 47 page pamphlet called Common Sense was circulating amongst the colonists. In clear and persuasive prose, Thomas Paine, the author of the pamphlet argued the moral and political basis for declaring independence from British rule. Paine claimed that, “Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one...” (Paine, 47)

With this in mind, the colonists after their victory, tried to establish a government that is the least evil. Enlightened and encouraged by the enlightenment movement in France, and by the ideas of English philosopher John Locke, they established a government that had multiple branches, namely the executive, legislative, and judicial, to keep each other in check. 

This form of government at the time guaranteed the freedom and liberty of only the male white citizens, and it will take another 200 years to expand this liberty and freedom to include women and colored people. This extension is by no means a gift of the government, but the result of decades by the women's suffrage movement and civil rights movement. Nevertheless, American democracy could be regarded as one of history’s greatest achievements.

At its inception, the federal government had very limited power compared to individual states but it over time acquired more power. The American Civil War essentially the denial of individual states rights to secede from the Union, this initiating federal domination over individual states. Key historical events further enhanced federal power, such events including WWI, WWII, the Great Depression, and the Cold War, and in each of them the federal government found one way or another to empower itself, often at the expense of state and individual freedom. The most recent example of this occurred after the events of 9/11 with the establishment of the Department of National Security. Under the guise of national security, the government has granted itself a great deal of power, which includes monitoring communication between any individuals under the justification of counteracting terrorism, and in the same context, potentially shutting down the social media platform Tik Tok. In the probable future, we might witness a government transforming from a necessary evil to pure evil.