Posted on 08/21/2007 8:20:57 AM PDT by IrishMike
It is not just in Iraq that the political Left has an investment in failure. Domestically as well as internationally, the Left has long had a vested interest in poverty and social malaise.
The old advertising slogan, “Progress is our most important product,” has never applied to the Left. Whether it is successful black schools in the United States or third-world countries where millions of people have been rising out of poverty in recent years, the left has shown little interest.
Progress in general seems to hold little interest for people who call themselves “progressives.” What arouses them are denunciations of social failures and accusations of wrongdoing.
One wonders what they would do in heaven.
We are in no danger of producing heaven on earth but there have been some remarkable developments in some third-world countries within the past generation that have allowed many very poor people to rise to a standard of living that was never within their reach before.
The August 18 issue of the distinguished British magazine The Economist reveals the economic progress in Brazil, Argentina, and other Latin American nations that has given a better life to millions of their poorest citizens.
Some of the economic policies that have led to these results are discussed in The Economist but it is doubtful that members of the political left will stampede there to find out what those policies were.
They have shown no such interest in how tens of millions of people in China and tens of millions of people in India have risen out of poverty within the past generation.
Despite whatever the left may say, or even believe, about their concern for the poor, their actual behavior shows their interest in the poor to be greatest when the poor can be used as a focus of the Left's denunciations of society.
When the poor stop being poor, they lose the attention of the Left. What actions on the part of the poor, or what changes in the economy, have led to drastic reductions in poverty seldom arouse much curiosity, much less celebration.
This is not a new development in our times. Back in the 19th century, when Karl Marx presented his vision of the impoverished working class rising to attack and destroy capitalism, he was disappointed when the workers grew less revolutionary over time, as their standards of living improved.
At one point, Marx wrote to his disciples: “The working class is revolutionary or it is nothing.”
Think about that. Millions of human beings mattered to him only in so far as they could serve as cannon fodder in his jihad against the existing society.
If they refused to be pawns in his ideological game, then they were “nothing.”
No one on the left would say such things so plainly today, even to themselves. But their actions speak louder than words.
Blacks are to the Left today what the working class were to Marx in the 19th century — pawns in an ideological game.
Blacks who rise out of poverty are of no great interest to the Left, unless the way they do so is by attacking society.
The poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits since 1994 but the Left has shown no more interest in why that is so than they have shown in why many millions of people have risen out of poverty in Latin America or in China and India.
Thomas Sowell is a genuis. I like his columns.
Thomas Sowell for SCOTUS ?
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cryogenic storage?
The last thing the Left wants is for there to be no poor people.
Why, without the poor, the Left would have no reason to exist.
Poverty is the Left’s best friend.
Great post. I really appreciate Thomas Sowell’s opinions.
“Progress in general seems to hold little interest for people who call themselves “progressives.” “
The only way liberals can gain power is by convincing citizens that they are victims. Considering oneself a victim is the easiest way to envision a solution to one’s problems. You relinquish your personal power and give it to someone else.
There is a lot of that going on lately.
That is also the title at creators syndicate but NRO changes the titles periodically.
I’m finding I have to search by thread / title a few different ways.
He hit this one out of the park.
They want the US military defeated around the globe, they want African Americans to stay down home on the Welfare Plantation, they want the healthcare system to resemble that of not-so-Great Britain, they want all use of energy to cease (except for themselves, of course), and they want total and complete economic stagnation (with themselves at the top of the much-leveled-heap, of course).
At least they are consistent.
In “Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America,” Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson – a true black leader whom many affectionately call “the other Jesse” – shows how the civil-rights establishment has made a lucrative career out of keeping racial strife alive in America.
He reveals how establishment black leaders endlessly promise solutions to the problems of America’s inner cities, but deliver only ineffective Band-Aids. From the dismal failure of the welfare system, to the farce of the slavery-reparations movement, to the problems within black churches and the hypocrisy and corruption of current black “leaders,” Peterson argues compellingly that the real crisis we face is spiritual, and that no economic solution will suffice. He skillfully weaves the realms of politics, culture, psychology and religion into this profound and relevant book.
Rather than promote perpetual victimhood, Peterson offers a platform of true empowerment, teaching individuals and families how to tap into the power within, rather than depending on handouts.
I read Jesse Lee Peterson’s book. He’s a man of great courage for standing up to the race pimps! I’m sure he gets a lot of grief from blacks but keeps moving on.
I’m sure he gets a lot of grief from blacks but keeps moving on.
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Roy Ennis, Walter Williams, Clarence Thomas .... etc etc
The left didn’t create any successful civilization, anywhere, anytime.
It is just an ideology of LOSERS
Tom is over 75 yrs old but with good health, why not risk him? Ha. Look, his columns have for years branded leftist socialist pacifism of the Dems but very few people are reading his material. It is too intellectual and right for most of the masses and the MSM hates him with a passion. He is a legend at Stanford and the left there also hates him. Good thing he is at the Hoover Institute.
thanks, bfl
The working class is too busy WORKING and trying to get ahead and grabbing at the chance to be well-off to be out protesting and marching for Lefist kook causes. "Revolutionaries" today are spoiled, lily-white children of rich parents. I've never met a "revolutionary" who actually HAD to work to survive.
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