The force that kindled the American revolution is the written word. It was a poetic polemic, Common Sense, published by Thomas Paine in January 1776, that completed the work begun a dozen years earlier, when Samuel Adams set up the first committee of correspondence.
Gen. George Washington used Common Sense, which he bought 25,000 copies of, as his chief recruiting and indoctrination tool. It united his army, both in animosity to oppression and in aspiration for personal liberty. The April 1775 shot heard round the world warned the king he had gone too far. Common Sense so aroused the colonists that they brought the British Empire to her knees.
By simply describing the nature of personal liberty, and pointing out the absurdity of arbitrary and inherited political power, Thomas Paine weaponized the English language, and helped secure the ordinary citizen’s greatest victory.
How soon we forget!
Today, a mere quarter millennium later, handwriting is no longer one of the three r’s that drove America to the top of the heap of nations. Reading, writing, and arithmetic now are listening, typing, and Alexa how much is 2 and 2.
Does anybody else remember endless blather from LBJ, Nixon, and the Pentagon about the campaign to pacify the Vietnamese people? They failed miserably in southeast Asia, but succeeded in the pacification of America, by punctuating the Johnson and Nixon presidencies with just a few killings.