Common Sense against Culture War — Thomas Paine’s Revolt versus Laurence Fox’s Reclaim

Statue of Thomas Paine. Photographe by Richard Croft

It might seem foolish to compare Enlightenment political theorist Thomas Paine and the bloke off the telly who plays a sidekick’s sidekick, Laurence Fox. But, aside from the fact I’d already started an essay about the culture war and Paine when Fox announced he was starting a new political whose only goal was to “fight the culture wars”, the two do share a common target for their revolts — Great Britain.

Before we get to Britain, it’s worth pointing out something very obvious. “Fight the culture wars” can mean two things — fight against or fight in. I’ve already argued that there is a way to fight against the idea of a culture war without bleating over song lyrics and other trivial issues, so I won’t thread over that ground again other than to say you don’t beat it by contributing to it and, that the very concept is borderline moronic. It boils down to society arguing over one set of beliefs versus another, and we have a word for that, politics.

Not knowing and barely caring: the methods of being a conscientious objector to the culture war