Generational conflict (old v. young) seems to be one of the strongest themes in Thomas Paine's writing. Since there are more generations alive now than ever before (about 5 living generations in U.S. right now), is generational conflict becoming, or has already become, the main source of division in American society today? If this is true, you would have to consider to what extent do other forms of conflict like class conflict (rich v. poor), ethnic conflict, racial conflict, gender and sexuality conflict, all fall under conflict between older and younger generations?
A lot of Paine's writing is devoted to attacking tradition which is obviously related to conflicts between generations. For conservatives, traditions are very important, in fact the term 'conservatism' itself comes from conserve, as in conserving or preserving traditions. The founder of 'conservatism' is Edmund Burke who was writing during the French Revolution which he condemned because it marked the ultimate destruction of tradition (remember the French even restarted their calendars so much did they want to wipe out traces of the past). Paine's book The Rights of Man, part of which is included in the coursepacket was written directly in response to Burke. For radicals like Paine, the past was only holding us back since the past for them was just a history of oppression and domination by kings and other forms of hereditary succession. The American Revolution in the eyes of radicals marked a break from the past, in a literal sense, that breaking away from England was breaking away from the past. In many ways that may have been true in 1776 or 1783 or even 1789 (when the Constitution is ratified), but the past is a presence for people living in 2010, so what kind of relationship should people have to the past and to traditions today?
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