AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

Thomas Sowell’s first sentence of this article, “One of the things that attracted me to the political left, as a young man, was a belief that leftists were for “the people.”, reminds me of the time I was a senior in high school and we were given a form to take home and fill out in order to register to vote. One of the questions was, “what party are you going to register under, Democrat or Republican”? I asked my mom, “what party are we”, she said, “we’re Democrats”, I asked , “Why”, she said, “because they’re for the working people”, so I marked Democrat and handed it in the next day. I learned quickly that my mom’s view of the Democrat party was wrong, and I learned much later, after reading Sowell and Hayek in the early 90”’s, that my view of the Republican party was wrong. Since the incentive of a politician is to grow Government, which in turn grows their power, there are big Government politicians in both parties. In the words of F. A. Hayek, “….The battle for freedom must be won over and over again, the socialists of all parties must be persuaded of defeated if they and we are to remain free men.”

Here are some excerpts from the article, Fact-Free Liberals: Part IV read here.

“…Fortunately, I was also very interested in the history of ideas — and years of research in that field repeatedly brought out the inescapable fact that many leading thinkers on the left had only contempt for “the people.”

“That has been true from the 18th century to the present moment. Even more surprising, I discovered over the years that leading thinkers on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum had more respect for ordinary people than people on the left who spoke in their name.”

“Another disturbing pattern turned up that is also with us to the present moment. From the 18th century to today, many leading thinkers on the left have regarded those who disagree with them as being not merely factually wrong but morally repugnant. And again, this pattern is far less often found among those on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum.”

“The vision of the left is not just a vision of the world. For many, it is also a vision of themselves — a very flattering vision of people trying to save the planet, rescue the exploited, create “social justice” and otherwise be on the side of the angels. This is an exalting vision that few are ready to give up, or to risk on a roll of the dice, which is what submitting it to the test of factual evidence amounts to. Maybe that is why there are so many fact-free arguments on the left, whether on gun control, minimum wages, or innumerable other issues — and why they react so viscerally to those who challenge their vision.”

In a previous post, Thomas Sowell Discusses “Fact Free Liberals”, Dr. Sowell explains issues like minimum wages, gun control and many others.

If you want to understand the vision of the left, I suggest reading The Vision Of The Anointed, and A Conflict Of Visions, by Thomas Sowell. In these books he explains, in his words, “…the underlying assumptions behind the very different ideoligical visions of the world being contested in modern times.”

These two books started me on a mind expanding voyage allowing me to see places I never realized existed.

This entry was posted on January 28, 2014 at 10:13 am and is filed under Government and Politics. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: A Conflict Of Visions, Fact Free Liberals, Political Left, Social Justice, The Vision Of The Anointed, Thomas Sowell