Posted on 03/03/2009 9:36:43 AM PST by jazusamo
They say talk is cheap. But in fact it can be devastatingly expensive. Among the generation of Germans who were enthralled by Hitler's eloquence, millions paid with their lives and their children's lives for empowering this demagogue to lead them to ruin and infamy.
Germany before Hitler was one of the more tolerant nations in Europe. That was what attracted so many Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe-- tragically, to their doom.
German immigrants who settled around the world have been among the more tolerant peoples-- not angels, a standard that only intellectuals could use, but comparing favorably with most others.
Do not for one moment think that we are either intellectually or morally superior to those Germans who put Hitler in power. We have been saved by our institutions and our traditions-- the very institutions and traditions that so many are so busy eroding or dismantling, whether in classrooms or court rooms or in the halls of Congress and the White House.
Talk matters for good reasons as well as bad. Anyone familiar with the desperate predicament of Britain in 1940, when it stood alone against the Nazi juggernaut that had smashed whole nations in weeks or even days, knows how crucial Winston Churchill's command of the English language was to sustaining the national will, which was the margin between survival and annihilation.
Unfortunately, people on the make seem to have a keener appreciation of the power of words, as the magic road to other power, than do people defending values that seem to them too obvious to require words.
The expression, "It goes without saying. . ." is a fatal trap. Few things go without saying. Some of the most valuable things in life may go away without saying-- whether loved ones in one's personal life or the freedom or survival of a nation.
Barack Obama is today's most prominent example of the power of words. Conversely, the understated patrician style of country club Republicans is no small part of their many problems.
It is no accident that by far the most successful Republican politician of our lifetime-- Ronald Reagan-- was a man who did not come from that country club background but someone who was born among the people and who knew how to communicate with the people.
Words can shield the most blatant reality. Legislation to take away workers' rights to a secret ballot, when deciding whether or not they want to be represented by a labor union, is called the "Employees' Freedom of Choice Act."
The merits or demerits of this legislation have seldom been debated. Who could be against "freedom of choice"?
The Obama administration's new budget, with deficits that make previous irresponsible deficits look like child's play, has a cover that says "A New Era of Responsibility."
You want responsibility? He'll give you the word "responsibility." Why not? It costs nothing.
Some observers are contrasting last week's highly successful speech by President Obama to Congress with the lackluster Republican response afterwards by Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.
People familiar with Governor Jindal have a high regard for him and many think he would make a good president. But Republicans have always had more people who would make good presidents than people who would make good presidential candidates. So long as we have a democracy, that distinction is crucial.
Governor Jindal made a typical Republican mistake when he began with a "me too" celebration of Obama's "historic" election. With a very limited time to address some complex issues, he needed to get right to the point and sober up such members of the audience as were capable of being sobered up.
He was, in a sense, defensive, as if he had to establish that he was a good guy. General Douglas MacArthur gave a one-word definition of defensive warfare: defeat.
There can be too many words, as well as too few. Governor Sarah Palin is doing herself no good by discussing her disastrous interview with Katie Couric. That does not look presidential, or even senatorial. A quarterback has to forget the interception he threw last time, and just make a better throw next time.
Don’t you think this picture makes him look dangerously avuncular?
I never thought of that but I think it does. Too bad we all don’t have more uncles like him. :)
Thanks for the ping jaz.
Dr. Sowell is on the mark in this one again. “It goes without saying”, He’s right.
MUST-READ BUMP
I really hope you’re right and suspect you are.
More wisdom in each sentence than in most books.
Yes, but it's better than dangerously carbuncular. ;)
Sowell is obviously very concerned. These are instructions!
Yes, he has tried to warn us from the beginning about BHO.
I can explain it to you.
I can’t understand it for you.
http://www.cafehayek.com/hayek/2009/02/comment-of-the-week.html
Thanks, George. There are many business owners who will feel exactly as that one.
BHO’s target group is not as stupid as BHO thinks.
They will downsize, move off-shore, retire, go fishing, work miminal hours to exist...
I said exactly this a couple of months ago...debating idiots that took the position that the United States of America is immune from what fell on Germany back in the 30's.
You’re clearly right and the scary thing is the majority of voters have already elected this jerk to the most powerful position in the world, lets hope the people wake up soon.
Governor Jindal made a typical Republican mistake when he began with a "me too" celebration of Obama's "historic" election. With a very limited time to address some complex issues, he needed to get right to the point and sober up such members of the audience as were capable of being sobered up.
Not the exact thought of Sowell, but along the same lines, I said this in a previous post the other day:
That drove me nuts in Jindal’s speech the other night that he takes the first few minutes to gush over Obama. If you can’t say something mean, don’t say anything at all—only kidding. The praise of these people that are literally destroying our country is infuriating to me though.
Governor Jindal made a typical Republican mistake when he began with a "me too" celebration of Obama's "historic" election. With a very limited time to address some complex issues, he needed to get right to the point and sober up such members of the audience as were capable of being sobered up.
Not the exact thought of Sowell, but along the same lines, I said this in a previous post the other day:
That drove me nuts in Jindal’s speech the other night that he takes the first few minutes to gush over Obama. If you can’t say something mean, don’t say anything at all—only kidding. The praise of these people that are literally destroying our country is infuriating to me though.
test post
That’s darn close and you’re dead on about the praise for these leftists, they deserve no praise!
Governor Sarah Palin is doing herself no good by discussing her disastrous interview with Katie Couric. That does not look presidential, or even senatorial. A quarterback has to forget the interception he threw last time, and just make a better throw next time.
The two quotes that stood out to me.
FMCDH(BITS)
Sometimes "dangerously avuncular" can be good in a conservative.
This is where I think a potential candidate like Sarah Palin has an edge with me right now. That may change when we get to Iowa in 2012, but that could be a theme once the Hawkeye Cauci rolls around (i.e.: "I'm not a blueblood Rockefeller type", "I'm one of you").
Some of us would have gone fishing regardless. :)
Agreed, there's no doubt she's got that to her credit now and should only improve with more experience in office. I believe there will be many more people recognize that after BHO shows his true colors in the next few years.
If there's a totalitarian takeover - one on the first people they'll go after will be Sowell. Structures need to be set up to get our champions out of the country to safety if it comes to that...
Very important column (especially the first part) by Sowell, and excellent comment of the week in your quote. Wow.
Are enough people waking up and realizing this???
The only thing special about this country is its freedom, enunciated in our founding documents. If we let them take it away, this country is just a place like any other.
Ben Franklin was NOT KIDDING AROUND when he told the lady, “If you can keep it.”
Does the average person in flyover country wear $400 Versace sunglasses and $600 Cole Haan boots?
There’s much to be said for this article. Sowell’s essays on the state of America provide unique insight that is rarely found elsewhere. His remarks about Jindal and Palin are critically accurate.
Interesting.
Agreed.
FMCDH(BITS)
He is on fire.
And, given his stand on these issues, he should be. This latest column is right on the money, straight out of "The Road to Serfdom". In this column, he is correct to make the parallel to Nazi Germany. He will not have Godwin's Law invoked against him for doing so, because this was done by F.A. Hayek in 1944, at a time when people might have understood it more readily.
Socialism leads to totalitarianism.
No. But as conservatives, we don't hold a grudge against those who make it into the bracket of income earners who do.
As far as I am concerned, she can wear Elton John sunglasses, but if she holds and defends REAL conservative values, understands and defends RKBA and is a proponent of smaller government and lower taxes, then I am good to go.
I could imagine her having this conversation with President Uribe of Columbia:
BUMP to that!
Well, he does seem to be going after the Rich Bankers (cough joooooos*).
His foolaide suppliers aka the ENEMEDIA have unlimited supply of 24/7 Bambiaide.
It aint lookin too good for America, or the rest of the world.
Sowell also gives good advice to Jindal and Palin. Thomas is the best wordsmith of our era. His short columns say more than almost anyone else in a third of the space.
Absolutely!
This smacks of a left-leaning talking point, as it's they who were whining about Palin's wardrobe budget. You're a Romney supporter, is that correct?
Sowell/Palin 2012!
I agree...i love Palin but she needs to move forward...Reagan never looked back.
Bringing up Romney? You must be a Palin supporter.
For the record and you can check my posts back to last August, I was a Palin supporter. As of now, I wouldn’t vote for her because of concerns I developed over the few months of the campaign and afterwards.
She is crafting an image. She has more in common with McCain than her supporters will ever admit (amnesty anyone?) She will move left to gain the voters she needs to win. The fact that hardcore Palinites openly insult and attack anyone who doesn’t worship at her feet is not conservative or rational. The cult of personality is offensive. You are losing more potential supporters with your attitude than you could gain.
Very much agreed and since I was a kid. It is hard to understand why people think it can't happen here.
In light of history, it is ever painful to see people take our freedom, so for granted, and also are incredibly willing, do to their ignorance, to so easily throw it away.
The reality is, most people who attempt to invoke Godwin's Law do so incorrectly and inappropriately, and demonstrate that they don't actually understand it.
True. Context is important...
Spot on! It has been so distressing over the years to see this develop. After WWII and in the 50's and middle 60's it seems most were so aware of our freedoms and then many of the pampered younger generation decided their freedoms were something they were entitled to.
The movement of the unwashed in the late 60's and 70's was bad enough when it was happening but the results as those involved got older and came into positions of authority has hurt us greatly. I don't know the answer but it will have to be turned around or our great country will be lost.
Visions of forefathers such as Washington, Jefferson and Franklin with a tear falling down their cheek, like the American Indian in the famous commercial, as they survey the socialist landscape which is today's America, routinely come to my mind.
As a most unpampered child in the 60's and 70's, I was a quiet observer. But it was clear what the pampered generation was all about. Communism loomed over all or heads due to the cold war and discussions regarding freedom vs. tyranny abounded. Most people seemed to understand then, it wasn't something necessarily unique or special about Americans that was superior to people in totalitarian states, but the form of government our founders so brilliantly and miraculously established, and given circumstances ripe enough, it too, could be, overcome, plunging us into the nightmare of government imposed slavery.
Many in the generations coming of age, have received educations so severely unstimulating and lacking, they can't even begin to fathom such thinking. Tragically, they can't even begin to think. The left is well aware of this reality and has fully exploited it.
Rumbling among democrats, less radical than the president is heartening. Perhaps they will join forces with Republicans and halt the implementation of much of Obama's agenda. Otherwise, Obama will do in one administration what most president's accomplish in two. Thus in four years, it will be too late.
Like no conservatives held Romney's tremendous private sector success against him, right?
Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, two very extraordinary people and politicians, are the two brightest stars in our party. I could care less from which class either of them come. Their knowledge, abilities and talents should be NOT be wasted. Nor should they be pitted against one another. We need them both.
But some things need exposure and are too egregious to leave in the past.
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