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Thomas Sowell: The Blessings of Inequality
The Pearcey Report ^ | 1-28-14 | Rick Pearcey

Posted on 02/02/2014 8:04:45 PM PST by ReformationFan

"We are lucky that we are so different," Thomas Sowell writes, "so that the capabilities of many other people can cover our limitations."

But more than this, Sowell argues, the inequality of abilities (or "diversity," one might say) we see in human beings can save lives and enhance "everyone's well-being."

Yes, human beings are created equal, as the Declaration of Independence so appropriately notes.

This fact of life affirms the ontological worth and significance of the human being. It expresses the basis upon which people are to be respected by the powers that be and not steamrolled by big government, big business, big media, big "ministry," big Hollywood, big "science," or big anything.

Thus government, business, ministry, and so on, are created to serve man. Man is not created to worship and serve any of these entities.

But note: Human beings are created equal in their individuality, as well. All of us have fingerprints, and yet every set of fingerprints is unique. In the human being, therefore, both unity and diversity are equally affirmed.

When diversity -- or inequality, properly understood -- is respected, our lives are enriched (in creativity, achievement, healing, wealth, and so on). Vive la différence.

The opposite is equally true. When diversity (or inequality) is disrespected, our lives are impoverished. Freedom, ideas, speech, excellence, and creativity begin to disappear as society is herded down the road to serfdom, to borrow a phrase.

Diversity can also be deified. But this is a bad move because, as an idol, diversity breeds chaos -- even if it is well marketed ("Diversity is our strength!").

Chaos in morals and politics is, of course, unlivable. And so the temptation comes: Let us organize our lives around "unity."

But when unity is grasped as a final solution, when it is deified in reaction to the totalizing god of "diversity," the real-world result is uniformity and oppression. The individual is smashed in the name of equality (or "fairness," "tolerance," etc.).

All too quickly, a people faces an elitist steamroller of presidential pens and phones, of federal laws and regulations, of dog-whistle peer pressure seeking to impose pretended absolutes enforced by those who hold power at a particular moment in history.

How do we move forward to achieve individual and corporate balance? By realizing that both unity and diversity are gifts from the Creator. They are too wondrous and powerful to be left in the hands of politicians.


TOPICS: Politics; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: blessings; diversity; inequality; pearcey; rickpearcey; sowell; thomassowell

1 posted on 02/02/2014 8:04:45 PM PST by ReformationFan
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To: ReformationFan
Yes, human beings are created equal

Equal, but not identical.

2 posted on 02/02/2014 8:37:01 PM PST by oldbrowser (Obamacare is Obama's Great Leap Forward)
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To: ReformationFan

Understanding the evil of radical egalitarianism which strips the unique identity from everyone.....even sexual identity, so that everyone is interchangeable, is essential. As the Catholic Church used to say before Vatican II—Marxism was evil and insidious because it dehumanizes—removes all which creates uniqueness and dignity in man (God).

“Gender” is a Marxist construct to destroy Reason/Biology and create these irrational ideas of what Jerry Brown is forcing onto little kids-—that little boys can look down at the truth and actually SAY, “I am a girl”——AND he is not locked up or sent to counseling and removed from abusive parents , but RATIONAL people are FORCED to acknowledge his insanity as SANE.

This is the aim of psychiatry-—for Marxists-—to create a society where the mentally ill are sane, and the Sane are labeled “insane”. That is what they used to put people in the Gulag-—claimed they were traitors or insane. All Lies, of course. That way the responsible/Good will not have access to guns and be locked-up.

That is where we are at with this Marxist Homosexual movement of Harry Hay— raped when a boy by a sailor—who was a hard-core Communist and wanted to normalize man/boy sex because HE loved it.

We are allowing INSANE, MENTALLY ILL people to use LAW (not Just Law) to force irrational ideas on our children—about marriage and Biology to destroy Reason and flip Good and Evil.

This has GOT TO END, NOW. The sexualization of children is a Marxist (Lukacs) construct which destroys VIRTUE intentionally in children.

To get back to Thomas Sowell. What a great man! I have loved that guy, since the 1990s when I discovered him. He is wise which is very rare today.


3 posted on 02/02/2014 9:29:26 PM PST by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
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To: ReformationFan

All Men are not equal.

Some are more intelligent, some are less intelligent.

Some are hard working, some are lazy.

Some are privileged, some are not privileged.

It’s the way it should be. If you work hard and are able to give your children privilege and opportunities, good. If you work hard and are able to give your community members privileges and opportunities, good. If you work hard and are able to give your countrymen privileges and opportunities, good. It’s the way it should be. Privileges and opportunity are things that are earned by some people, and should be bestowed on others as wished, just like any property.


4 posted on 02/02/2014 11:14:15 PM PST by Born to Conserve
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To: ReformationFan

We are not born with equal talents. However, each soul is equal before the Lord. The equal value of our souls is our great human equalizer.


5 posted on 02/03/2014 4:25:26 AM PST by abclily
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To: abclily

Well said.


6 posted on 02/03/2014 5:03:37 AM PST by onedoug
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To: Born to Conserve

There are human rights and civil rights.

There are also HARD-EARNED rights, which must be respected as well.


7 posted on 02/03/2014 5:22:54 AM PST by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: oldbrowser
Equal, but not identical

Identical means exactly equal.

8 posted on 02/03/2014 6:52:06 AM PST by MosesKnows (Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe.)
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To: Born to Conserve

It is a biblical “good” that a man lays up an inheritance (ie, the dreaded “privilege”) for his children and his children’s children...

But, of course, the left has the opposite value system - that this “privilege”, in others, is to be despised.


9 posted on 02/03/2014 6:57:01 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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