Tom and Adolf

    Let’s start with Tom ─ Thomas Sowell ─ my favorite columnist and an outstanding socio-political thinker,
    In an opinion piece published last week in the Manchester Union Leader, Dr. Sowell danced perilously close to denying the validity of that most sacrosanct of liberal shibboleths, namely

THERE ARE NO DIFFERENCES IN ABILITIES BETWEEN RACES, ETHNICITIES, SEXES, AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASSES

    This dogma, drilled into American children from grade school on, is one whose denial elicits in the liberal heart (at least for public consumption) the same murderous rage that blaspheming the Prophet elicits in the hearts of Muslims (at least for public consumption).
    In his column, after noting that San Francisco area Asian-American students far outperformed all other groups in a recent national science competition, Dr. Sowell writes:

"...disproportionate representation of particular groups among those with special skills and achievements is not confined to Asian Americans or even to the United States...Gross inequalities in skills and achievements have been the rule, not the exception, on every inhabited continent and for centuries on end. Yet our laws and government policies act as if any significant statistical difference between racial or ethnic groups in employment or income can only be a result of their being treated differently by others."

    By way of example, Dr. Sowell adduces, "...the Ibos in Nigeria, the Parsees in India, the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Germans in Brazil, Chinese in Malaysia, Lebanese in West Africa, Tamils in Sri Lanka. The list goes on and on."

    Finally, he has this to say about the whiners and complainers, the Occupy Wall Street types:

"...disparities in achievement are resolutely ignored by those whose shrill voices denounce disparities in rewards, as if these disparities are somehow suspicious at best and sinister at worst. Higher achieving groups — whether classes, races or whatever — are often blamed for the failure of other groups to achieve...This can be a huge disservice to those individuals and groups who are lagging behind, for it leads them to focus on a sense of grievance and victimhood, rather than on how they can lift themselves up instead of trying to pull other people down."

    Although Dr. Sowell avoids any mention of "African-American" or "Black" or (heaven forbid) "Negro," his message is clear: Statistical disparities between various sub-populations are generally caused by disparities in ability, not by the straw men of prejudice, bigotry, and discrimination.
    What would happen if anyone other than a brilliant black scholar had voiced similar opinions?
    Just this: Whether the individual was a Supreme Court Justice, the President of Harvard University, a newspaper columnist, a television personality, a radio commentator, a sports broadcaster, a politician running for office, or a drunken Hollywood actor ─ he would be hauled before the Grand Inquisition Court of Political Correctness, forced to his knees, made to recant his heresy, and summarily deprived of his livelihood.
    And nary a squeak would be heard in his defense from his employers, his friends, his co-workers, his fellow professionals, or those stalwart guardians of our freedoms ─ the members of the press.

* * *

    How did this Orwellian proscription against rational thought come to plant its roots in America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave," a nation supposedly proud of its intellectual openness, its tolerance of dissent, its belief in the right to seek truth regardless of where such exploration might lead?
    For the answer, one need go back no further than 75 years when Adolf Hitler, that quintessence of evil, and his ovine flock of fellow sadists and murderers ─ the German people ─ began their 10-year reign of terror against civilization itself.
    Among the many toxic legacies of the Führer were the mutation of his very name into a synonym for depravity, and the enshrinement of his beliefs in a sort of anti-matter Ten Commandments ─ an unholy text, handed down from Satan Himself ─ that spelled out all the sins that faithful acolytes of malevolence and corruption must obey if they aspire to the Kingdom of Hell.
    First among these Commandments, of course, was the Austrian necrophiliac’s racial ravings, namely, that all human beings, other than pure-blooded Germans, must either be enslaved or exterminated.
    In today’s America, and increasingly throughout Western society, we see our moral and legal structures founded not on any rational basis, but, instead, on the rejection of whatever Adolf Hitler happened to advocate. Nowhere is this more apparent or more pernicious than in matters of race.
    As Dr. Sowell puts it, "Politicians and intellectuals, especially, tend to conceive of social questions in terms that allow them to take on the role of being on the side of the angels against the forces of evil."
    In particular, it is the inverse of that Hitlerian First Commandment that has led to the absurdity of so many of our laws and institutions and to so much of our ideology ─ school busing, job quotas, affirmative action, "No Child Left Behind," "Title IX," dumbed down police and fire department tests, scholarships based on race and ethnicity rather than intellect and ability, colleges that no longer challenge their students lest one group outperform another, endless discrimination lawsuits that do little other than enrich lawyers and prevent corporations from firing incompetents and ne'er-do-wells. 

•Hitler is rumored to have put on his trousers one leg at a time. Should we Americans henceforth purchase trampolines so that we can leap into our pants with both hind legs at once?
•Hitler was fond of dogs. Should we send Chihuahuas to the gas chamber?
•Hitler had a mustache. Should we imprison men with facial hair?
•Hitler instituted the development of a "People’s Car." Should we demand the destruction of all Volkswagens?
•Hitler ordered autobahns to be built. Should we tear up our Interstate Highway system?
•Hitler smashed through Europe with his Panzers and Stukas. Should we scrap out Stealth Bombers and Abrams tanks and issue Civil War muskets to the troops?

    Granted...Der Führer is odds-on favorite to win a contest for the most evil and detestable human being who ever walked on the face of this earth. But no nation or group or individual can or should pattern its behavior on simply doing the opposite of whatever some murderous sociopath or other happened to preach.
    By refusing to acknowledge ─ or even consider ─ the possibility of significant differences between groups of people, we do a profound disservice not only to free thought and the spirit of impartial scientific investigation, but, above all, to the many racial, ethnic, and social groups that make up this country of ours.
    Every group has its strengths and weaknesses, its areas of outstanding achievement and, yes, its areas of outstanding failure.
    No progress will ever be made, no good will ever come, from a refusal to face the truth, from the rejection of dispassionate inquiry, or from quasi-religious dogmas enforced by the High Priests of Political Correctness.

Norm Mack, Peterborough, dog@myfairpoint.net

You can check out Dr. Sowell’s columns for yourself at http://www.tsowell.com/

Posted by dome of glass at 2/2/2012 1:00 AM
Categories: Lies, Prejudice, Race, Political Correctness
Tags: Tom Sowell Adolf Hitler Occupy Wall Street
 

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  • 2/8/2012 2:08 PM JMG wrote:
    Well said. What's the solution?
    Reply to this
    1. 2/9/2012 6:32 PM dome of glass wrote:
      That's a tough question, Jarad. Some people suggest mass sterilization of Liberals, but since their reproductive rate is already so low, it hardly seems worthwhile. There's always genocide, of course. Genocide is  defined as the systematic destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. Since Liberalism is a religion, I believe the courts would agree that it qualifies.
      Reply to this
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