AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

Thomas Sowell retired from writing his weekly column two weeks ago. Some of my favorite columns he writes are his ‘random thoughts’ columns. His last random thoughts column was titled “Random Thoughts, Looking Back” (Click here).

Here are some excerpts.

–Any honest man, looking back on a very long life, must admit – even if only to himself – being a relic of a bygone era. Having lived long enough to have seen both “the greatest generation” that fought World War II and the gratingest generation that we see all around us today, makes being a relic of the past more of a boast than an admission.”

-“The old are not really smarter than the young, in terms of sheer brainpower. It is just that we have already made the kinds of mistakes that the young are about to make, and we have already suffered the consequences that the young are going to suffer, if they disregard the record of the past.”

–“Black adults, during the years when I was growing up in Harlem, had far less education than black adults today – but far more common sense. In an age of artificial intelligence, to many of our schools and colleges are producing artificial stupidity, among both blacks and whites.”

–“The first time I traveled across the Atlantic Ocean, as the plane flew into the skies over London I was struck by the thought that, in these skies, a thousand British fighter pilots fought off Hitler’s air force and saved both Britian and Western civilization. But how many students today will have any idea of such things, with history being neglected in favor of politically correct rhetoric?”

–“You cannot live a long life without having been forced to change your mind many times about people and things – including in some cases, your whole view of the world. Those who glorify the young today do them a great disservice, when this sends inexperienced young people out into the world cocksure about things on which they have barely scratched the surface.”

–“Back when I taught at UCLA, I was constantly amazed at how little so many students knew. Finally, I could no longer restrain myself from asking a student the question that had long puzzled me: “What were you doing for the last 12 years before you got here?”

–“The first column I ever wrote, 39 years ago, was titled “The Profits of Doom.” This was long before Al Gore made millions of dollars promoting global warming hysteria. Back in 1970, the prevailing hysteria was the threat of a new ice age – promoted by some of the same environmentalists who are promoting global warming hysteria today.”

–“Reading about the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, and the widespread retrogressions of Western civilization that followed, was an experience that was sobering, if not crushing. Ancient history in general lets us know how long human beings have been the way they are, and dampens giddy zeal for the latest panaceas, despite how politically correct those panaceas may be.”

More ‘Random Thoughts Columns’

Random Thoughts: Thomas Sowell.

Thomas Sowell, “The Point Of No Return“

Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts

Thomas Sowell” Random Thoughts On The Passing Scene

Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts,

Random Thoughts By Thomas Sowell

Random Thoughts By Thomas Sowell

Random Thoughts And Other Thoughts by Thomas Sowell

This entry was posted on January 11, 2017 at 12:15 am and is filed under Hall of Fame, Miscellaneous. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Last Random Thoughts Column, Thomas Sowell Random Thoughts