Grow Up

National Review Online ^ | September 9, 2008 | Thomas Sowell

[CapnJack]

Conservatives, as well as liberals, would undoubtedly be happier living in the kind of world envisioned by the Left.

Very few people have either a vested interest or an ideological preference for a world in which there are many inequalities.

Even fewer would prefer a world in which vast sums of money have to be devoted to military defense, when so much benefit could be produced if those resources were directed into medical research instead.

It is hardly surprising that young people prefer the political Left. The only reason for rejecting the Left’s vision is that the real world in which we live is very different from the world that the Left perceives today or envisions for tomorrow.

Most of us learn that from experience — but experience is precisely what the young are lacking.

“Experience” is often just a fancy word for the mistakes that we belatedly realized we were making, only after the realities of the world made us pay a painful price for being wrong.

[CapnJack]

Dr. Sowell has a very unique way of putting things in perspective and explaining why certain people are the way they are.

Always a good read.

[kenavi]

Very down to earth.

But if real life wasn't challenging, what would be its purpose?

[DJ MacWoW]

Churchill said about the same thing only in fewer words. ;-)

Thanks for posting this.

[null and void]

Darn, I thought this was going to be a zot thread.

Thanks for posting. It should be required High School reading...

[ChessExpert]

Sowell is the gold standard.

He has a very profound understanding of the limitations of liberalism/socialism. He has tried many times to get through to liberals, to find a key that unlocks a few minds so they can properly understand the world. It is very hard to do, but it may be essential for our future.

[ctdonath2]

It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against, like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on.
- Tom Lehrer

[roses of sharon]

Sowell’s books make great gifts, it will flip a young liberal in a heartbeat.

[PDMiller]

Where was this article when an e-mail from a friend who had just heard Obama speak in Lansing, MI arrived in my inbox a month ago. My reply to my friend was a lame attempt to frame what Sowell has so eloquently detailed. The Obama enthusiasm is so mired in idealism and wishful thinking, but, until recently, his salesmanship of it to the media and a willing audience of Bush-haters was very effective. Thank God for Sarah Palin!!