In this excerpt from common sense, thomas paine lists the groups that prefer an alliance with great britain over living in a free country. what is his purpose for doing so? though i would carefully avoid giving unnecessary offence, yet i am inclined to believe, that all those who espouse the doctrine of reconciliation, may be included within the following descriptions. interested men, who are not to be trusted, weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see, and a certain set of moderate men who think better of the european world than it deserves; and this last class, by an ill-judged deliberation, will be the cause of more calamities to this continent than all the other three. to provoke the supporters of freedom to declare war against the colonists who prefer the rule of great britain to oppose the colonists' belief in the superiority of a european government over its american counterpart to emphasize that reconciling with great britain is misguided and will cause greater suffering for the colonists to inform the colonists that a greater source of their suffering is their own fellow man to criticize the king of britain for attacking the colonies and imprisoning some of his most loyal followers nextreset