Posted on 03/11/2013 11:44:28 AM PDT by jazusamo
Once we recognize that large differences in achievement among races, nations and civilizations have been the rule, not the exception, throughout recorded history, there is at least some hope of rational thought — and perhaps even some constructive efforts to help everyone advance.
Even such a British patriot as Winston Churchill said, "We owe London to Rome" — an acknowledgement that Roman conquerors created Britain's most famous city, at a time when the ancient Britons were incapable of doing so themselves.
No one who saw the illiterate and backward tribal Britons of that era was likely to imagine that someday the British would create an empire vastly larger than the Roman Empire — one encompassing one fourth of the land area of the earth and one fourth of the human beings on the planet.
History has many dramatic examples of the rise and fall of peoples and nations, for a wide range of known and unknown reasons. What history does not have is what is so often assumed as a norm today, equality of group achievements at a given point in time.
Roman conquests had historic repercussions for centuries after the Roman Empire had fallen. Among the legacies of Roman civilization were Roman letters, which produced written versions of Western European languages, centuries before Eastern European languages became literate. This was one of many reasons why Western Europe became more advanced than Eastern Europe, economically, educationally and technologically.
Meanwhile, the achievements in other civilizations — whether in China or in the Middle East — surged ahead of achievements in the West, though China and the Middle East later lost their leads.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
One reason is that "disparate impact" lawsuits require nothing more than statistical differences to lead to verdicts, or out of court settlements, in the millions of dollars. And the reason that is so is that so many people have bought the unsubstantiated assumption that there is something strange and sinister when different peoples have different achievements.Centuries of recorded history say otherwise. But who cares about history any more? Certainly not as much as they care about the millions of dollars available from "disparate impact" lawsuits.
After the restoration of our constitutional republic, I believe people will look long and hard at tort reform. No small part of all that's gone wrong for America has been blind trust in lawyers, who've been anything and everything but loyal to the law.
bkmk
As usual brillliant analysis from T Sowell a national treasure.
I wish he was young enough to run for President.
The love of money.
Can you name any civilization that has changed course once it was well down the road of socialism at any point throughout history?
As far as I know they all had to crash and burn before deciding to go in a different direction. People like their “free” stuff and once they get a taste of it they believe they are entitled to it. A thirst that is never quenched no matter the cost.
Thanks for posting these two with the crosslinks. These are absolutely great columns.
The attempt to make everyone equal is doomed to failure.
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