# Thomas Paine

> Thomas Paine is mapped as the named argument: it locates theories and strategies in people whose work shaped later political practice.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Stable ID | `node:kiduna:political-change:people-thinkers:thomas-paine` |
| Family | People & Political Thinkers |
| Domain | History |
| Kind | person |
| Archetypal function | The Named Argument |
| Epistemic status | sourced_claim; supported |

## Concrete anchor

Thomas Paine belongs to the **People & Political Thinkers** family. It is treated as a specific political object, role, institution, tactic, event, ideology, or mechanism before any symbolic transfer is made.

## What it does

Thomas Paine locates theories and strategies in people whose work shaped later political practice, changing who can act, what becomes visible, and which costs are distributed to others.

## Who gains and who loses power

The mechanism can increase the capacity of actors able to use Thomas Paine, while shifting cost, delay, risk, exclusion, or dependence toward actors with less authority, information, organization, money, or safe access. The distribution is conditional, not an essence of the node.

## Archetypal function

**The Named Argument.** Thomas Paine is mapped as the named argument: it locates theories and strategies in people whose work shaped later political practice.

## Gift

makes intellectual and strategic lineage concrete; through Thomas Paine, that capacity becomes available for deliberate use.

## Wound / Shadow

turns complex people into saints, villains, or portable quotations; Thomas Paine can then reproduce the very arrangement it claims to change.

## Conditions

- scale and jurisdiction are explicit
- affected people and absent stakeholders are named
- time horizon and countermoves are considered

## Strategic meaning

Use Thomas Paine to identify the operative target, resource, dependency, decision forum, and likely countermove. Ask what would make the mechanism stronger, weaker, more legitimate, or less necessary.

## Divinatory meaning

The Named Argument enters through Thomas Paine. Read for the capacity seeking expression, the cost displaced from view, and the relationship that changes if the frame moves.

**Question:** What changes when Thomas Paine becomes the unit of analysis rather than background?

## Game function

**resource.** Reveal one hidden dependency connected to Thomas Paine; another player names a countermove. Initiative 3.

## Relationships

- **counteracts — Montesquieu:** Montesquieu counteracts Thomas Paine by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(cultural_historical; supported)_
- **amplifies — James Madison:** Thomas Paine amplifies James Madison by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(cultural_historical; supported)_
- **institutionalizes — The Community Organizer:** The Community Organizer institutionalizes Thomas Paine by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_
- **counteracts — Pentagon Protest:** Thomas Paine counteracts Pentagon Protest by changing authority, participation, resources, information, legitimacy, timing, or the cost of cooperation. _(interpretive; tentative)_

## Countermaps and polarity prompts

- Read Thomas Paine from the viewpoint of the actor who bears its cost.
- Reverse cause and symptom: what if Thomas Paine is an effect of the system it appears to drive?
- Change the clock: what looks different over a day, an election cycle, a generation, and a century?
- Ask when the Gift becomes the Wound through scale, secrecy, intensity, latency, or unequal reciprocity.

## Epistemic and Sentinel note

Claim layers: cultural_historical, interpretive, symbolic_divinatory. Scope, jurisdiction, period, and source perspective may change the claim.
No node-specific Sentinel factors were recorded; ordinary source, audience, and context checks still apply.

## Visual direction

A text-free enamel expression of Thomas Paine: one dominant mechanism, one counterforce, raised warm-metal linework, midnight field, restrained civic red, teal, ivory, and amber. No party logo, national flag, sacred symbol, or recognizable person.

## Research / provenance

- [Introduction to Political Science](https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science) — OpenStax, 2022. Comparative institutions, political behavior, and public policy foundations.
- [Gandhi Heritage Portal](https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/) — Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, ongoing. Digitized writings and historical materials; interpretations require context.
- [Letter from Birmingham Jail](https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/letter-birmingham-jail) — Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, 1963. Direct action, constructive tension, law, justice, and timing.

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Engine Output version 1.0.0; generated 2026-08-24T00:00:00Z. Sentinel annotations are stored separately in `sentinel/handoffs.json`.
