Posted on 01/29/2007 9:14:29 PM PST by jazusamo
It has now become more and more obvious, even to some people who initially believed the "rape" charges against Duke University students, that there was never a speck of evidence to support the charges and a growing amount of evidence to the contrary.
However reprehensible District Attorney Nifong's words and actions have been throughout this case, it would be a serious mistake to see in this tawdry episode just the vileness of one man.
The larger tragedy is what this case revealed about the degeneration of our times and the hollowness of so many people in "responsible" positions in the media, in academia, and among those blacks so consumed by racial resentments and thirst for revenge that they are prepared to lash out at individuals who have done nothing to them and are guilty of no crime against anybody.
The haste and vehemence with which scores of Duke University professors publicly took sides against the students in this case is just one sign of how deep the moral dry rot goes, in even our most prestigious institutions.
The January 29th issue of The Weekly Standard has a devastating article about the lynch mob atmosphere created, not only by the Duke University faculty and administration, but also by writers for such "respectable" publications as the New York Times and the Washington Post, not to mention a professor of law at the University of Southern California and a former president of Princeton.
We have become a society easily stampeded, even by the unsubstantiated, inconsistent and mutually contradictory statements of a woman with a criminal record.
All it takes is something that invokes the new holy trinity of the intelligentsia -- "race, class and gender." The story of a black woman gang-raped by white men fit the theme so compellingly that much of the media had no time to waste trying to find out if it was true before going ballistic.
The biggest losers from the current Duke "rape" case include not only the three students accused but also the black community, which has once more followed a demagogue who knew how to exploit their emotions for his own benefit.
Some of these demagogues are white like Nifong but there are also homegrown black demagogues like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who have prospered greatly, and basked in the limelight, by leading other blacks into a blind alley of futile resentments and counterproductive self-dramatization.
The unraveling Duke "rape" case should be a wake-up call, both for blacks and for liberals, on how easy it is for their emotions to be manipulated by even a third-rate demagogue with a flimsy fraud. The time is long overdue for some of those who consider themselves "thinking people" to start doing some thinking.
Many liberals can at least afford their mindless crusades. They may end up looking silly, but that has never stopped them before.
The biggest losers from getting sucked into these frauds are blacks, especially young blacks who go off on an emotional tangent that leads nowhere, at a time when there are so many opportunities in other directions, if they will direct their time and efforts in those directions through education and other serious interests.
The current self-destructive misdirection of energies in black ghettoes cannot be explained by a "legacy of slavery" or "racism." For one thing, this level of self-destruction in black communities did not exist half a century ago, when racism was worse and the black population was generations closer to the era of slavery.
Moreover, a virtually identical pattern of self-destructive attitudes and behavior has been found among British lower-class whites, where none of this can be blamed on racism or a legacy of slavery. (See "Life at the Bottom" by Theodore Dalrymple.)
What the two self-destructive communities on opposite sides of the Atlantic have in common is hearing a steady diet of propaganda blaming all their problems on others, and depicting "society" as determined to keep them down, regardless of anything they might do to try to lift themselves up.
That same deadly message has produced the same tragic results among very different people. The Duke "rape" fraud is yet another sign that the time is long overdue for all of us to start thinking.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.
Another excellent column by Dr. Sowell.
"The unraveling Duke "rape" case should be a wake-up call, both for blacks and for liberals, on how easy it is for their emotions to be manipulated by even a third-rate demagogue with a flimsy fraud."
It doesn't matter if it's true.
What matters is whether it will stick or not.
And, the politicization of everything. "Fake but True" America.
Sorry, I missed you on the ping.
Wake up calls are a thing of the past in America.
Was 9/11 a wake up call? No, it appears not.
Was Sandy Berger's crime a wake-up call? No, if Sandy Berger was a Republican would it have been a wake-up call? HELL YES. It would have been front page news for a month and the sanctimony would have been dripping from every news casters lips daily.
The media controls popular opinion whether we like it or not, and we don't.
Until there is a Conservative Network nothing will change, you would think the microcosm of FNC's success would lead some smart billionaire/TV tycoon to unleash a conservative network. Nope, they're happy with having a mass liberal propaganda machine because it's WILDLY EFFECTIVE.
Great post!
I'm afraid I have to agree. For a time it looked like FNC was going to carry the message but they've slipped.
Nifong and his plaintiff, Crystal, should both be borugh tup on charges.
Just saw the Milton Friedman story where Thomas Sowell was his student...
Excellent : IMO
Milton Friedman was a brilliant man and he must have been a good teacher too.
Milton Friedman had a wonderful life.
A real gentleman with nice friends like thomas sowell
Thank you Dr. Sowell. Sanity ought to be more popular.
That's actually what FOX is, but you've made some good points. The harsh fact is that although there are many more socially conservative people than there are liberals in America, libs still dominate the media by a great margin. That's despite FOX News, conservative talk radio, and the internet. Most people I know still get virtually all their info from Big Lib Media. Even many Republicans do not tune into the internet or watch FOX. We have a long way to go. Your idea of another conservative network is a good one. I guess you don't believe FOX is conservative enough (and I tend to agree with you), but it's better than whatever else is out there.
Dr. Sowell is TRULY a genius. He nails academia to the wall in this article!
But the Sowells of the world will not run for office. Alas, he is not a scoundrel, and could not take the abuse.
I so enjoy Dr. Sowell's wisdom and telling it like it is..
Always. Sowell for POTUS.
Yes, I agree. Sowell can think and then make his thinking into print like virtually no other current pundit. Short, crisp sentences and crystal clear prose make his ideas available to all literate people.
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