[Lucky2]

Bump

[Havisham]

Thomas Sowell is my indispensable teacher. Read "Vision of the Anointed" and his many other great explorations of class and race politics.

[PatrickHenry]

Pacifists are among the most immoral of men. They make no distinction between agression and defense. Therefore, pacifism is one of the greatest allies an agressor can have.

[oyez]

What you do go to the root cause. Bring it in to the light for all to see. Then you rip its throat out.

I just as soon to live with a cobra snake in my yard as hav the Al Queda lurking about. Where I come from we'd get a hoe chop its head off.

[breakem]

excellent

[Frohickey]

Pacifists of the 20th century had a lot of blood on their hands for weakening the Western democracies in the face of rising belligerence and military might in aggressor nations like Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. In Britain during the 1930s, Labor Party members of Parliament voted repeatedly against military spending, while Hitler built up the most powerful military machine in Europe. Students at leading British universities signed pledges to refuse to fight in the event of war.

Remember the Star Trek: TOS episode with Joan Collins. She played the pacifist, Edith Keeler. Gist of the episode, is that a rabid Dr. McCoy travels back into the past through an alien artifact, and changes history. Capt Kirk and Mr. Spock have to go back and repair the damage that Dr. McCoy caused to time. Edith Keeler was the pacifist who will start and effective pacifist movement that will delay the United States' entrace into World War II, thus allowing Hitler's Germany to develop the atomic bomb first and conquer the planet.

Link

[proud American in Canada]

Thanks for a wonderful post. He is a very, very good writer.

[Sandy]

I love Thomas Sowell. Thanks for posting this.

[PogySailor]

I watched Robert Jensen on O'Reilly earlier tonight. He would feel comfortable in Chamberlain's clothes.

[CWOJackson]

Interesting read.

[michaelt]

Thanks for posting this. The Jackson story deserves its own thread. I have some comments on other posts.

The Chamberlin quote about "understanding their mentality" would make a nice quiz question for pacifists that you may come across. At least Chamberlin eventually saw the mistakes he made. "Professor" Robert Jensen never will.

Jesse is complaining about hate crimes? How about the 10,000 or so committed on September 11? I have yet to see Jesse Jackson on national TV since then. Am I just lucky, or have the networks actually decided that he has noting of substance or relevance to add to our nation at this time?

[jimt]

Excellent article by Thomas Sowell, of course, I wouldn't expect anything less. Thanks for the post.

What he says is certainly visible in the events since 9-11. World leaders are definitely getting behind our program, because they know we've got the power and they also know we have the will to use it.

When an American president has 91% approval ratings, after making statements like "...pretty soon they're gonna hear from ALL of us!", the terrorists and dictators have good reason to be quaking in their booties.

[Terriergal]

I've noticed that pacifism is a privilege won by non-pacifism. How ironic.

Just like all these animal rights/environmental nuts who don't realize that if it weren't for them living in such a cushy free society, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

[JMJ333]

At a Labor Party rally where Britain was being urged to disarm "as an example to others," economist Roy Harrod asked one of the pacifists: "You think our example will cause Hitler and Mussolini to disarm?"

The reply was: "Oh, Roy, have you lost all your idealism?"

In the flaring parks, in the taverns, in the hushed academies, your murmur will applaud the wisdom of a thousand quacks. For theirs is the kingdom.--Kenneth Fearing

[Faraday]

Sowell's analysis is insightful as always. Nevertheless, I would argue that there are very few "true" pacifists. The Quakers come to mind. While their ideas are wrong-headed, they consistently apply a religious maxim as they see it. The fact is most of those who preach appeasement and "non-violence" in the face of demonstrated aggression and evil, have agendas other than abiding religious admonitions. Some view war as an inconvenience to their exploitation of the their "own" nation, i.e. to redistribute social power and wealth in the name of equality. Others view the capitalist system as the main enemy of the "world's" people. And the enemy of their enemy is their friend, i.e. they are traitors who wish to see our country's institutions collapse to be replaced by their dictatorship. These are variants of socialist ideology and have little in common with pacifists, except in that the pacifists are "useful idiots."

[Countyline]

"What a shame our schools and college neglect history, which could save us from continuing to repeat the idiocies of the past, which are even more dangerous now in a nuclear age."

Parents have a responsibility to educate their children in the important issues in life. If it is re-enforced by the schools, then that's gravy.

[The Southern Right Winger]

Why is Colin Powell Sec. of State instead of Dr. Sowell?