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Backward-Looking 'Progressives'
Townhall.com ^ | November 22, 2016 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 11/22/2016 10:59:49 AM PST by Kaslin

People who call themselves "progressives" claim to be forward-looking, but a remarkable amount of the things they say and do are based on looking backward.

One of the maddening aspects of the thinking, or non-thinking, on the political left is their failure to understand that there is nothing they can do about the past. Whether people on the left are talking about college admissions or criminal justice, or many other decisions, they go on and on about how some people were born with lesser chances in life than other people.

Whoever doubted it? But, once someone who has grown up is being judged by a college admissions committee or by a court of criminal justice, there is nothing that can be done about their childhood. Other institutions can deal with today's children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and should, but the past is irrevocable. Even where there are no economic differences among various families in which children are raised, there are still major differences in the circumstances into which people are born, even within the same family, which affect their chances in later life as adults.

For example, among children of the same parents, raised under the same roof, the first born, as a group, have done better than their later siblings, whether measured by IQ tests or by becoming National Merit Scholarship finalists or by various other achievements.

The only child has also done better, on average, than children who have siblings. The advantage of the first born may well be due to the fact that he or she was an only child for some time, perhaps for several formative years.

People who call themselves "progressives" claim to be forward-looking, but a remarkable amount of the things they say and do are based on looking backward.

One of the maddening aspects of the thinking, or non-thinking, on the political left is their failure to understand that there is nothing they can do about the past. Whether people on the left are talking about college admissions or criminal justice, or many other decisions, they go on and on about how some people were born with lesser chances in life than other people.

Whoever doubted it? But, once someone who has grown up is being judged by a college admissions committee or by a court of criminal justice, there is nothing that can be done about their childhood. Other institutions can deal with today's children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and should, but the past is irrevocable. Even where there are no economic differences among various families in which children are raised, there are still major differences in the circumstances into which people are born, even within the same family, which affect their chances in later life as adults.

For example, among children of the same parents, raised under the same roof, the first born, as a group, have done better than their later siblings, whether measured by IQ tests or by becoming National Merit Scholarship finalists or by various other achievements.

The only child has also done better, on average, than children who have siblings. The advantage of the first born may well be due to the fact that he or she was an only child for some time, perhaps for several formative years.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: sowell; thomassowell
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1 posted on 11/22/2016 10:59:49 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: jazusamo

Ping


2 posted on 11/22/2016 11:00:17 AM PST by Kaslin (Most humans have an attention span of about 10 minutes, after that they will revert to daydreaming)
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To: Kaslin

Exactly correct.

They look backward at the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Vietnam, and so on, and think, “If only they’d done communism right...”

It’s an immensely common form of self-delusion.


3 posted on 11/22/2016 11:02:12 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: Jack Hammer

Oppression, despotism, monarchy, and tyranny have been the human condition for thousands of years. The still-new way for people to organize their affairs is self-governance, liberty and freedom.

It annoys me to no end that leftist progs think they are in the vanguard when all they seek to do is re-instate the old ways.


4 posted on 11/22/2016 11:06:13 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Kaslin

Regressives.


5 posted on 11/22/2016 11:10:09 AM PST by FrdmLvr ("A is A. A thing is what it is.")
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To: Kaslin
One of the maddening aspects of the thinking, or non-thinking, on the political left is their failure to understand that there is nothing they can do about the past.

Burn the heretic! I know personally at least a half-dozen fervent liberals who actually do imagine that we can turn back the clock and make up for injustice with other injustice. That is, after all, the formative assumption of all schemes of redistribution. Social justice is theft; the only question is whether it is justified theft. "Justified theft" - if there is such a thing it ought to have a very high bar, higher than the current murky emotionalism of social reformers.

6 posted on 11/22/2016 11:11:29 AM PST by Billthedrill
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Oppression, despotism, monarchy, and tyranny have been the human condition for thousands of years.
Still is - just look at the UN.
7 posted on 11/22/2016 11:16:03 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Kaslin

later


8 posted on 11/22/2016 11:16:12 AM PST by Chuckster ("Them Rag Heads just ain't rational" Curly Bartley 1973)
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To: Kaslin
they go on and on about how some people were born with lesser chances in life than other people.

claiming to be for equality of opportunity is just another excuse for libtards to increase the size of government and to increase control of individuals and the economy

9 posted on 11/22/2016 11:18:28 AM PST by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: mjp

The leftists aren’t looking for equality of opportunity — They want equality of outcomes, regardless of actions that are the cause of the inequalities.


10 posted on 11/22/2016 11:24:45 AM PST by Bob (No, being a US Senator and the Secretary of State are not veauccomplishments; they're jobs.)
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To: Kaslin
Marxist/Jesuit HR poodle herder:  We're Conservative {uhhh} But Progressive!

Citizen Gonzo: Oh, Ok! {LOL. Is she serious? What the heck - I smell Charles Fox doo doo, but it'll an interesting salvage job.}

The funny thing about "progressives" is they're always delusional enough to believe they're smart enough to lie - when the self-evident fact is, they're NOT; and their work-product demonstrates how buzzwords and BS are better for hiding behind than for building anything functional upon.

Got Peter Principle?

11 posted on 11/22/2016 11:24:51 AM PST by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Jack Hammer
>>They look backward at the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Vietnam, and so on, and think, “If only they’d done communism right...”

Look Closer:

http://www.google.com/search?q=jesuit+reductions+paraguay+beautiful

http://www.google.com/search?q=american+jesuit+colleges

You know what an M.B.A. from one of their institutes of higher indoctrination typically renders?

M.ore B.ullshyte A.bove

12 posted on 11/22/2016 11:31:46 AM PST by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: Kaslin

PROGRESSIVE = REPRESSIVE/REGRESSIVE


13 posted on 11/22/2016 11:36:01 AM PST by laplata ( Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: Kaslin

Progressives are only interested in power, money, and sex, not necessarily in that order, and they have no concern or compassion for any other person on the face of the Earth. Their continued pretense that they do offends me.


14 posted on 11/22/2016 11:37:03 AM PST by TBP (0bama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: Kaslin

Trains. But faster trains.


15 posted on 11/22/2016 11:37:46 AM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Kaslin

I understand the long standing belief/knowledge that a first-born child shows more leadership skills and other characteristics which lead to success.

However, the idea that they do ‘better’ than their siblings is still a objective in nature.

If a person is judged by education, wealth, etc., it still misses the point of the spiritual dimension. Wellness can be defined by more than IQ, money, etc.

By-the-way, my father was an only child, and he deeply regretted not having a sibling. He was actually the second-born but his older, infant brother was born premature and died within a week of his birth. My grandparents never had any more children after my Dad was born.

Siblings are a wonderful thing in most instances. I have ever regretted having six! Even throughout our adulthood we have gotten along fairly well, and when re reminisce about our childhood, our memories are amazingly similar. we had great parent

On Thanksgiving Day I give thanks for the gift of a happy childhood with a great Mom and Dad.


16 posted on 11/22/2016 11:42:54 AM PST by Gumdrop
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To: Kaslin

Progressive politics is really communism with different clothes and maybe stripped of the more hard core Marxist ideology. More like a sentimentality of Marxism.


17 posted on 11/22/2016 11:43:14 AM PST by Lent
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To: Kaslin; abigail2; Amalie; American Quilter; arthurus; awelliott; Bahbah; bamahead; Battle Axe; ...
Thanks for the ping, Kas.

*PING*
Thomas Sowell


18 posted on 11/22/2016 11:54:02 AM PST by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: Kaslin
Generations of American children have been taught the counterfeit ideas of "progressivism" instead of the authentic histories of the seedbed of ideas out of which the Declaration of Independence, with its emphasis on liberty for the individual, protected by the limitations of a written Constitution for a free society.

America's leaders need to read early histories of the founding of America and of the seedbed of ideas from which its Constitutional government structure arose.

"Rise of the Republic of the United States" - Richard Frothingham.

"Ideas have consequences"(Weaver).

In 2016, we must remember that the ideas of 1776 came out of a set of ideas consistent with liberty.

We tend to forget, or have never considered, that other world views existed then, as now.

Unless today's citizens rediscover the ideas of liberty existing in what Jefferson called "the American mind" of 1776, we risk going back to the "Old World" ideas which preceded the "Miracle of America."

There are those who call themselves "progressives," when, in fact, their ideas are regressive and enslaving, and as old as the history of civilization.

Would suggest to any who wish an authentic history of the ideas underlying American's founding a visit to this web site, at which Richard Frothingham's outstanding 1872 "History of the Rise of the Republic of the United States" can be read on line.

This 600+-page history traces the ideas which gave birth to the American founding. Throughout, Richard Frothingham, the historian, develops the idea that it is "the Christian idea of man" which allowed the philosophy underlying the Declaration of Independence and Constitution to become a reality--an idea which recognizes the individual and the Source of his/her "Creator"-endowed life, liberty and law.

Is there any wonder that the enemies of freedom, the so-called "progressives," do not promote such authentic histories of America? Their philosophy puts something called "the state," or "global interests" as being superior to individuals and requires a political elitist group to decide what role individuals are to play.

In other words, they must turn the Founders' ideas upside-down in order to achieve a common mediocrity for individuals and power for themselves.

19 posted on 11/22/2016 11:55:22 AM PST by loveliberty2
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To: loveliberty2

Thanks for another great post and excellent find.


20 posted on 11/22/2016 12:06:00 PM PST by Kaslin (Most humans have an attention span of about 10 minutes, after that they will revert to daydreaming)
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