General Information
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Title: Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government
Author: Glenn Beck
Read By: Glenn Beck
Copyright: 2009
Audiobook Copyright: 2009
Genre: Politics
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Abridged: No
File Information
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Number of MP3s: 51
Total Duration: 5:42:56
Total MP3 Size: 210.18
Parity Archive: No
Ripped By: NMR
Encoded With: LAME
Encoded At: CBR 80 kbit/s 44100 Hz Mono; VBR 85-131 kbit/s 44100 Hz Joint Stereo
Normalize: None
Noise Reduction: None
ID3 Tags: Set, v1.1, v2.3
Book Description
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http://www.amazon.com/Glenn-Becks-Common-Sense-Control/dp/0743599357/ref=ed_oe_a
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
#1 New York Times bestselling author and popular radio and television
host Glenn Beck revisits Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
About the Author
Glenn Beck is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Christmas
Sweater and An Inconvenient Book. He is also the author of The Real
America and publisher of Fusion magazine. He is the host of a tv show
on FoxNews and also the nationally syndicated radio show The Glenn Beck
Program, which is the third most listened to talk show in America. Visit
www.glennbeck.com
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction
I think I know who you are.
After September 11, 2001, you thought our country had changed for the
better. But the months that followed proved otherwise. We began to divide
ourselves and the partisan bickering that had been absent from blood
donor lines and church services started all over again.
You sometimes argue with friends about politics, not because you are
a political activist, but because you think the issues are actually
important. You have strong beliefs, but you also have an open mind and
a warm heart.
You try to do the right thing every day. You work hard, you always try
to do your best, and you play by the rules.
You have credit cards, but you can make the payments. You have a home,
but with a loan you can afford. Maybe you bought a flat-screen television
that wasn't exactly a necessity, but you've never been reckless.
You don't have much in savings and your retirement plans have lost a
significant amount of money.
You may go to church, but most weekends, you don't really want to --
you'd rather sleep in or play with your kids. Besides, it bothers you
that people cut each other off in the parking lot right after the service.-
You have [CENSORED]ren and, like all families, you also have your share of
problems -- but you're making it. You constantly hope that your kids
don't notice you're bluffing as a parent most of the time.
You feel like there's not enough time in the day anymore to just be
a family. Everyone is always going in six different directions. You
know material things don't matter, but you wonder why it makes you feel
like a bad parent if your kids don't have certain shoes, the newest
video games, or aren't signed up for five different sports teams.
You didn't have anywhere near the kind of stuff that today's kids have
and yet you look back on your [CENSORED]hood with a sense of nostalgia and
pride. If your family was poor, you didn't know it.
You turn on the television at the end of a long, tiring day and watch
as endless analysts in left/right boxes argue about things done by bankers
that, in retrospect, now seem implausible. You're worried about what's
happening to our economy, but you're more worried about what it means
for your family -- and you're not sure what to do.
You try to tune out the bickering by watching an entertainment show
-- but there are times when you're uncomfortable watching them with
your kids. You're not a prude, but you happen to think that a three-year-old
shouldn't be watching shows that treat sex lightly and mock mothers
and fathers. But what can you do? The other shows are worse.
You've taught your [CENSORED]ren the difference between right and wrong,
yet they come home with language and habits that they didn't learn from
you. You're shocked to hear what they're learning in school -- but you
don't make a fuss because they're the "professionals" and you don't
want to be one of "those people" anyway. You don't cherish conflict;
you just want everyone to get along.
You don't hate people who are different than you, but you stopped expressing
opinions on sensitive issues a long time ago because you don't want
to be called a racist, bigot, or homophobe if you stand by your values
and principles.
You believe in treating people justly and honestly but there is a difference
between right and wrong.
You go to bed exhausted almost every night, knowing you have to get
up the next day and do it all over again.
You thought that the politicians you supported and defended cared about
the issues you do. Then you began to realize that you were wrong --
they only care about themselves and their careers. You feel used and
betrayed.
You don't think it's right that while you worked hard, lived prudently,
and spent wisely, those who did the opposite are now being bailed out
at your expense. You realize now that self-serving politicians and bankers
built our financial system on a house of cards that, despite the cheery
promises and rosy forecasts, is now collapsing.
Now our government, the instigator of our problems, is telling everyone
that they have to start sacrificing. Don't they understand that I already
have been, you think. You weren't the one spending too much or living
on money you didn't have. You made decisions rooted in logic while others
made decisions rooted in greed -- yet now everyone must pay equally?
Yet, despite all of that, you're still willing to sacrifice more because
you want America to succeed. But you demand a plan that's based on common
sense and that actually has a chance to work.
You've called your congressman a few times in the past, but they don't
listen. Now you just scream at the television. It's about as effective
as the phone calls.
The light from the television flickers on the darkened room walls --
people at tea parties across the nation fill the screen. You don't know
how to feel. You want to do something, but that isn't you. You're not
an activist. You don't make signs or chant: "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"
So, you turn off your light and go to sleep.
Every night it seems you are faced with a choice: Do you unplug or do
you speak out? Both of those options make you uncomfortable so you do
neither...and your frustration continues to grow.
The First Step out of Our Comfort Zone
The fastest way to be branded a danger, a militia member, or just plain
crazy is to quote the words of our Founding Fathers. I imagine that
this is because words have consequences and the words and ideas that
those men shared were revolutionary:
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
It is not time to dissolve the bands that connect us to one another,
but it is time to dissolve the "political" bands that separate us from
one another. Even if we disagree on politics, the phrase "I am an American"
is not just a collection of words, it is the embodiment of an idea,
one that has power only because "We the People" give it power. But somewhere
along the way we've forgotten that, so we feel small and helpless as
our country drifts away.
Perhaps what we need is a reminder. A reminder of who we are, who is
really in control, and, most important, a reminder of how we got to
a place that bears less and less resemblance to the America we remember
from our [CENSORED]hoods. Let us start by doing what we've been trained for
so long not to: let us declare the causes that unite us.Supplementary
materials copyright © 2009 by Mercury Radio Arts, Inc.
A Note from the Author
Two hundred and thirty-five years ago, a British citizen with only a
basic education set off to make a new life for himself in the British
colonies. For two years he worked hard and watched as his fellow colonists
grew tired of British oppression. Then he decided to act. Using his
contacts in the publishing industry, Thomas Paine anonymously released
a pamphlet that made the case for revolution using extraordinarily logical,
straightforward, indisputable arguments.
He called it Common Sense.
Once Paine put his feelings into words, he realized that he wasn't alone.
Only seven months passed between the release of Common Sense in January
1776 and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Seven months
-- a pinpoint in the history of time, but a moment that put the colonies
on an irreversible track toward revolution and, ultimately, freedom.
Seven months that changed the world, forever.
Today we find ourselves back in 1776 -- but this time our path forward
isn't so clear-cut. The abuses being perpetrated by our government are
just as obvious now as they were then, but instead of rising up with
a collective voice, we sit idly by and watch as our hard-won freedoms
slowly dissolve into a puddle of apathy, political correctness, and
outright corruption.
We feel helpless and alone as we hear confusing debates over obscure
issues play out on the airwaves daily. But that's the lie. The infighting
and the purposeful division promoted by our political parties is a simple
ploy to keep us from uniting. After all, a citizenry that fights among
itself over petty differences is too busy to notice the real cause of
its problems.
As you read the details of the immense harm that both parties have done
to our country, you might find yourself wondering what can be done to
change our course. I lay out several options, but I want to be clear
that none of them includes violence. Thomas Paine and his fellow revolutionarie-
s shed their blood so that future generations would have access to weapons
immeasurably stronger than muskets or bayonets: the weapons of democracy.
Those are the tools that we will use to usher in a second American revolution,
a revolution that won't be fought on battlefields, but in the hearts
and minds of the three hundred million people lucky enough to call America
home.
Over the years, many revolutionaries have used sharp tongues instead
of sharp knives -- and the results have been extraordinary. Martin Luther
King, Jr., for instance, once said to his supporters: "The question
is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we
will be...The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."-
It was inflammatory language, but he meant that it is much easier to
simply die for a cause than it is to find inventive, effective means
to fight for it. Violence is the easy way out -- but it's also a sure
path to discrediting everything you stand for, something that those
opposed to him found out the hard way.
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions
of our time," King said while accepting the Nobel Prize. He continued,
"...[man must] overcome oppression and violence without resorting to
oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human con... --This
text refers to the Paperback edition.
