Read the following excerpt from Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and answer the question that follows:
"Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this province. [Pennsylvania], are of English descent. Wherefore, I reprobate the
phrase of Parent or Mother Country applied to England only, as being false, selfish, narrow and ungenerous. But,
admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing. Britain, being now an open enemy.
extinguishes every other name and title: and to say that reconciliation is our duty, is truly farcical. The first king of
England, of the present line (William the Conqueror) was a Frenchman, and half the peers of England are descendants
from the same country; wherefore, by the same method of reasoning, England ought to be governed by France."
The line "But, admitting that we were all of English descent, what does it amount to? Nothing" is an example of what?