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Summary: Now I finally understand liberals!
Review: What an incredible book! I have always leaned towards a more conservative ideology but never unnderstood why. It is only now that I have read this book that I understand with high fidelity the liberal mindset. There are occasional flaws in the book; for example, I really think most lawyers, rather than being leftists, are just greedy. Evolving judicial standards is a problem, but I'm not convinced it's because of "the Anointed", I think we could also attribute it to simple greed and amorality. But besides that, Thomas Sowell is very good at putting all this together into a cohesive package about the mindset of "the Anointed". And, though the references to "the Anointed" got old, I think I understand why he didn't just *call* them liberals. It is because he is more concerned with weaving together a mindset than exploring a label with modestly ambiguous meanings. For example, I consider myself "liberal" on certain issues. When I was young, in fact, I even considered myself a liberal. But then, I grew up. I think liberals especially need to read this to understand how conservatives think! Great book. Buy a copy for a friend!
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Summary: A good book with few holes
Review: Overall, the book is a good read, and provides some very good information. All of the facts presented are referenced and cross-references, with very few of them incorrect. (In the cases where there was a mistake, it was most often a case of the majority of people had bad information. Well, you can't master _everything_!)I definately enjoyed the book, and highly recommend it.
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Summary: Recent history and current events prove this book's worth!
Review: Sowell has studied the liberal mindset, analyzed their tactics, and documented it completely. One needs only to read the newspapers, watch the evening news, or listen to a press secretary to see this in action. Whether you agree with the liberal politics or not, you can't argue that the approach they are using is quite effective. Sowell's book at least helps us to understand what they are doing.
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Summary: The finest political science of this decade
Review: Thomas Sowell amazes with this work. Sure, he could have cited more inconsistencies on the Right, but he did cite Bush's Gulf War as something he opposed. I cannot begin to express my gratitude to Sowell for this eloquent volume.
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Summary: Sowell is truely benighted
Review: Thomas Sowell establishes two conflicting political philosophies. He christens them "The Anointed" and the "Benighted". He justifies this polarazation with the statement, "If they are liberal, conservative or radical on foreign policy, they are likely to be the same on crime, abortion or education." The anointed are liberal and the benighted are conservative. In a typical contortion of terms he he endows the "benighted" with enlightenment and the "anointed" with at best stupidity. His heroes, listed at the end of chapter one are Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Karl Popper, Edward Banfield, Ronald Reagan etc. In Chapter 4, "The Irrelevance of Evidence". Sowell states "Factual evidence and logical arguments are often not merely lacking but ignored in many discussions by those with the vision of the anointed." Part of this chapter is devoted to the Reagan Administration. Sowell presents a table digested from the national budget which purports to show that the Reagan administration tax policies were successful: Sowell shows (In millions of dollars) that: 1981: RECIEPTS 599, OUTLAYS 678, DEFICIT -78 1988: RECIEPTS 909, OUTLAYS 1,064, DEFICIT -155 He considers the data positive. The table hides some real facts. Thomas Sowell, in what charitably could be called an oversight, fails to break out the receipts and outlays from federal trust funds, the largest of which is social security. A more accurate table (from the same source) would be: (These do not sum to above figures due to negative interfund transfers. See original data) 1981: RECIEPTS Fed 410 Trust 241 OUTLAYS fed 496 Trust 234 DEFICIT fed -86 Trust 7. 1988: RECIEPTS Fed 561 Trust 491 OUTLAYS fed 814 Trust 393 DEFICIT Fed -253 Trust 98. Sowells digest inflates receipts and deflates the deficit by including Trust fund contributions. Most of the "growth in revenues" he attributes to trickle down are actually increases in social security and other trust fund taxes. The budget is available on line: Search for BudgetFY97 Sowell admits that "Spending increases simply outstripped the rising volume of tax receipts" He fails to deal with the issue that the burden of taxes fell (and falls) most heavily upon the middle class and the poor. Social security taxes which the table shows were used to finance deficit spending during the Reagan administration, are regressive. They are limited to the first $65000 of income. Sowell does not discuss the massive increase in the total debt during Reagan, or the legacy of the multibillion dollar savings and loan bailout. He knocks down a straw man when discussing the increase in homelessness during the Reagan years by establishing the existence of more money for public housing at that time. "Since it is hard cash that pays for housing, homelessness has its roots in other factors besides government spending on housing." Most liberals (the anointed) agree with the above statement. The problem was not spending on housing, but decreased taxes on the wealthiest, the ending of many other social programs, and an economy in which inflation, increased judicial and legislative hostility towards unions, increased cost of medical care, foreign competition and other economic factors drove down the real earnings of the middle class and the poor and forced many into poverty and homelessness. The government had no control over some of these factors but the administration policies exacerbated the situation. Chapter 3, "By The Numbers", starts with the statement: "Anyone who looks through enough statistics will eventually find numbers that seem to confirm a given vision." Although attributed only to the anointed, this technique is used by Sowell, not only in the tables above, but throughout his treatise. This chapter discusses logical fallacies. It emphasizes that correlation does not establish causation. One could illustrate this fallacy with the second chapter entitled "The Pattern". Sowell argues that the "War on Poverty" increased poverty by rewarding indolence. In order to bolster this argument he shows that by 1992 a larger number of people were in poverty than in 1964 when the war began. He does not trace the expenditures versus poverty in the country, nor does he trace when spending on social programs began to decrease. He states "From an analytical standpoint, the issues were virtually ideal for testing:" There are no controls so there is no experiment. Sowell does try to establish correlations, but according to Sowell, correlations do not establish causality. Since the "War on poverty" ended, poverty has been on the upswing. Unfortunately this is NOT solid evidence of the war on poverty's success, but is clouded as are all such statistics by global economic changes and the changes in the taxation structure in this country. Sowells rules of evidence are different for the benighted and the anointed. He uses the same approach to claim that Sex Education has increased pregnancy rates and judicial liberalism has increased crime. The book is reminiscent of Mien Kampf, or Das Kapital, books that attempt to neatly partition the world into two groups. Chapter 5 is entitled "The Anointed Versus the Benighted". Here he presents a little table representing the differences between the "The Tragic Vision" and "The Vision of the Anointed". The catagorizations show the authors prejudices. In Sowells vision, the annointed adopt "as mascots all sorts of people who create a high cost for their fellow human beings" These mascots are: Vagrants or "the Homeless", Criminals, Disease Carriers. Targets of the anointed are: Business and the Professions, Families, Religion Like Marx and Hitler, Sowell would simplify the world in order to understand it. He trivializes the wealth of different and unique visions. Instead of Germans and Jews, or The Capitalist and The Worker, or the Baptized and the Damned, he leaves us with the Benighted and the Anointed.
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Summary: A "handbook" that all conservatives should keep on hand.
Review: I have lived throught the Great Depression and this book confirms the political thought and views I have always held. It clarifies the values which have been responsible for the success of this country. Those are the freedom of the individual and personal property rights. Even if you are down to your last $16, you should buy this book.
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Summary: Wonderful explanation of the way intellectuals think
Review: Thomas Sowell knows what he is talking about! Living in Washington, DC I've met so many of the types he describes that it is incredible. What is most interesting is that the "annointed" generally have contempt for the elected! There is a needed follow-up book on Puritan conceptions of predestination which might explain this phenomenon. I hope Sowell explores its historical development. But this book is well worth reading, like an X-ray into the mind of Washington media and government.
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Summary: Sowell Gives Voice to My Feelings
Review: I have lived through childhood in the 60s and am now 41. So much of this book brings back memories and confirms my frustration with America today. Basically the Anointed want to pretend they have god-like knowledge. When did it become unfashionable to be humble? When did "thinking people" cease to see that the more knowledge you have the more intricate the world reveals itself to be? Then as a result of this awareness of complexity, the less likely comprehensive solutions to negative aspects of the human condition become. It is a fact of life that it is easier to make unilateral decisions. Group decision making is dirty work. But as Dr. Sowell points out, who are the Anointed to put aside the experiences and preferences of millions over many centuries? I am benighted, but I also think.
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Summary: Hamburger casserole of some sacred cows...
Review: An insightful look at self-congratulation as the primary ingredient in the design and failure of social engineering over the last thirty or so years, 'The Anointed Ones' (no religious connotation, so put those hackles DOWN) is a deft unveiling of the polymorphic rationale that has harried US social policy since the late 50's. Sowell takes on sacred cows in the social policy universe and makes a satisfying hamburger casserole of perspective, reality, and logic; adroitly identifying and empirically demonstrating the profound disconnect between the intellectual elite, their 'vision', and the reality that continues to prove that 'vision' misconceived decade after decade. A very good read regardless of where you fall on the ideological spectrum. In my opinion, one of the few books all but guaranteed to expand the mind.
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Summary: Ever more accuate
Review: Sowell hits the nail squarely on the head with this volume. This book been indespensable for debate. If you like to argue politics, this book will give you the tools to to win. The opposition will be reduced to name-calling (i.e. bigot, racist, homophobe, etc.) since they will not be able to refute the method of logical debate. A must have for critical thinking, whether you agree with Sowell's politics or not.
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