History is what happened, not what we wish it happened or what a theory says should have happened.
Tag: Thomas Sowell
(1930- ) American economist, turned social theorist, political philosopher, and author. He is currently Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
Other’s achievements
I am so old that I can remember when other people’s achievements were considered to be an inspiration rather than a grievance.
The Constitution does not protect us
It doesn’t matter what rights you have under the Constitution of the United States, if the government can punish you for exercising those rights. And it doesn’t matter what limits the Constitution puts on government officials’ power, if they can exceed those limits without any adverse consequences. In other words, the Constitution cannot protect you, if you don’t protect the Constitution with your votes against anyone who violates it. Those government officials who want more power are not going to stop unless they get stopped. As long as millions of Americans vote on the basis of who gives them free stuff, look for their freedom — and all our freedom — to be eroded away, bit by bit. Our children and grandchildren may yet come to see the Constitution as just some quaint words from the past that people once took seriously.
Journalists cannot serve two masters
Journalists cannot serve two masters. To the extent that they take on the task of suppressing information or biting their tongue for the sake of some political agenda, they are betraying the trust of the public and corrupting their own profession.
The victims of slavery
The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.
The black family survived centuries of slavery and generations of Jim Crow, but it has disintegrated in the wake of the liberals’ expansion of the welfare state.
Confession
The political left’s attempts to silence ideas they cannot, or will not, debate are a confession of intellectual bankruptcy.
The cost of false equality
Trying to reduce economic inequality by increasing political inequality, which is essentially what Marxism is all about, has cost the lives of millions of innocent people under Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and others.
Beware the cure
Most of the problems of this country are not nearly as bad as the “solutions” — especially the solutions that politicians come up with during election years.
Take off the mask
Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.
Is reality optional?
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.