What's shocking about this essay is not that he actually *says* anything shocking. What's shocking is that his words were actually CONSIDERED shocking to begin with...when written as a precursor to the American Revolution.

For example, Paine points out that there is nothing magical, special or super-human about the British monarchy, or any other monarchy for that matter. In reality, he asserts, they were nothing more than descendants of thieves, rapists, and murderers who became powerful houses quite literally from stealing, raping and murdering peasants or anyone with inferior weaponry; nothing more than leading a large enough group of ruffians to commit crimes without punishment. Fast forward enough generations, and history blurs this reality, creating a mythology of nobility, a mythology of class and sophistication, of "divine right". One Paine is all too happy to demolish.

So the great power of Paine's words rests in the seemingly common place, obvious logic and...well..common sense of what he is telling us, factoring the historical reality that when they were first spoken, these words were incendiary and radical.