Rating: 
Summary: no-nonsense, no-prisoners expose of liberal newthink
Review: I can add nothing to what the other positive reviewers of this book have said. Read this book. Learn it. Quote it like you do the Bible. The truth will set you free. This book will give you a lengthy outline, crammed with specific examples, of what we're up against in dealing with the Dudley Do-Goods that have already come perilously close to ruining this nation. Liberals are trapped in their mindset because they DON'T THINK: they "feel," and they use buzzwords to bypass thought, argument, and evidence. Thank God the elections of Clinton have spelled the doom of liberalism in America. See you at the polls in November: let's get veto-proof majorities in both houses and run these creeps out of town on a rail! (Hint: To get a shorthand recap of the content of this book-- say, if you're hanging around the bookstore on your lunch hour-- read the last chapter, which sums it all up.)
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book... Cuts Straight Through Liberal Non-logic
Review: One of Sowell's very best. Well-documented, it shows how liberals twist words and logic to justify themselves and their selfish policies. Yes, selfish, because they want a monopoly on all moral righteousness and claims to compassion. If you disagree with thier policies, then you must be uncompassionate. As Sowell says, don't worry about whether the policies actually WORK or not, whether they are in keeping with human nature as it really is, or not; simply worry about whether or not the policies SOUND GOOD. Don't question my policies, because if you do, you're fighting against my GOOD INTENTIONS, and intentions, not actual results, are all that matters. Sowell's analysis of liberals and their ultimately harmful do-goodism is incisive and insightful. A STELLAR book!!!! PS, and he's black, too... Next time you question the nanny State and are called racist for doing so, cite Thomas Sowell!!!!
Rating:
Summary: "A primer on Logic"
Review: Another reviewer stole my thunder in describing this book as a primer on logic. So it is. Dr. Sowell's book is a cornerstone of my "intellectual bibliography." Wonderful, wonderful . . .you will never listen to a debate again in the same way.I think this is a book that should be required reading for all undergrads and graduate students everywhere!
Rating:
Summary: Strongest recent argument against liberal orthodoxy
Review: I read this astonishingly well-argued book back in early '96 when it first hit the shelves. Since then, I have reread it cover-to-cover at least twice! Sowell's writing is so rich in common sense and mounts so much evidence that it delivers a well-placed and sorely-needed jolt to both the progrssive status quo and its champions. I believe that the plethora of Amazon reviews speak for themselves in proving that this is a must-read for every American adult. Even those who disagree must emerge with admiration for the scope and quality of Sowell's project. Professor Sowell, God bless you for your courage and your principles.
Rating:
Summary: A Final Refutation Of Liberal "Compassion"
Review: Thomas Sowell never ceases to amaze and enlighten with his myriad of books on the follies of liberal "thought." As one who once thoroughly endorsed the titular vision of the anointed - his term for the self-appointed cadre whose mission is changing the world "for the better" - Sowell holds a unique insight into the thought processes of those who ostensibly seek to "help" people but who in reality are simply jealous of, and wish to injure, those who succeed. A reviewer above notes that Sowell attacks primarily liberals. There is a valid reason for this - it is primarily liberals who seek to change society in their own vainglorious image. Sowell's best individual example is that of Ralph Nader. Relatively few have ever noticed that, amid his endless combat for "consumer advocacy," Nader is what one Congressional committee chairman accurately called "a bully and know-it-all, consumed by certainty and frequently in error.&q! uot; Sowell decisively refutes the book that made Ralph Nader, Unsafe At Any Speed, a book that used the Chevrolet Corvair as a stick with which to beat automobile factories. The book was and is fundamentally dishonest, yet so few paid attention amid the wave of Nader's spin that by the time someone noticed that the book was utterly false, the damage had been done, and self-appointed consumer "advocates" had become a cancer on the economy and society. Sowell goes through chapter after chapter detailing liberals' attempt to impose their will on the world, the usually disasterous results of this "vision of the anointed," and the consistent inability to make liberals face up to their own failures. This is the most depressing aspect of the entire issue. Instead of facing up to their mistakes, liberals, possesed of a holier-than-thou attitude, press on. Even today, when no denial of the havoc wrought by liberal social engineering has any credibility, libe! rals continue, through such boondoggles as health care &quo! t;reform" - actually Stalinization of health care and punishment of those who've supposedly "profited" from "unfair" health care policies. What Sowell does best here is demonstrate that liberals do not in fact care for people. Liberal thinking is characterized by a general lack of thought and a penchant to treat people as groups instead of as individuals. The anointed insist on their compassion for humanity, yet never think in terms of actual people. This is what makes Sowell's book so important - it shows why "Seldom have so few cost so much to so many."
Rating:
Summary: But can only Liberals be anointed?
Review: As a negative reviewer below pointed out (accurately, but unfairly and dishonestly in degree), Sowell neglects an important point--there may also be conservatives among the anointed. That the anointed are 80% liberal and only 20% conservative is no excuse; Sowell could have easily spent as much time on the failure of the War on Drugs as on the lost War on Poverty. Recently on television, when an interviewer referred to him as being conservative, Sowell corrected him, describing himself as a libertarian. This book actually bears that out, but he could have made it more clear and boosted his credibility with a few token conservative-anointed examples. That said, this is an important book, an excellent catalog of fallacies relied on by those who prefer force to persuasion in the furthering of their beliefs.
Rating:
Summary: a tour-de-fource exposing assumptions behind leftist thought
Review: Probably Sowell's greatest work. He puts the vision of the left under intense scrutiny in a historical, philosophical, and political analysis that shows how not just visions, but their premises must ultimately be challenged. Full of polemic, texture, and depth, this is a book designed to put a kick in the fundament of the "progressive" ideological orthodoxies that have shaped so much of 20th century thought. Truly a masterpeice
Rating:
Summary: Ever wonder how liberals can believe what they believe?
Review: It's easy once you're "annointed". You care more, think more, and know more than non-liberals, and all the other liberals say you do, so you must be right! Sowell lays it out in this excellant explanation of how liberals delude themselves and others. My favorite book on politics after "Parliament of Whores" by P.J. O'Rourke.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful analysis of policy making by the "in-crowd."
Review: Wow. This is the one book I would like to give to every elected official in America. As Ronald Reagan said, "facts are stubborn things." However, a political culture has risin in this country which has substituted passion (mostly directed by utopian views of life) for facts and persuasive argument. Sowell explains and criticizes this phenomenon brilliantly.
Rating:
Summary: Dr. Sowell incisively analyzes left wing group think
Review: Thomas Sowell demonstrates how anti-intellectual the current intelligensia are and how closed minded. When good intentions are more important than outcomes, a closed belief system results, insulated from real world feedback, with catastrophic results. Modern political discourse has degenerated into name-calling ("mean-spirited," "reactionary," "racist") without reference to actual merits of a proposed course of action. Until I read Dr. Sowell's discussion of "mascots" and the "benighted," I never understood why organizations like the ACLU display the most passion of the behalf on those who exhibit the most anti-social behavor (Nazis marching in Skokie, drunks yelling obscenities at ballball games): Now I do. Dr. Sowell's description of the genesis of government "solutions" (a phony crisis, a proposed program whose critics are shouted down and a retroactive redefinition of the program's goals when the critics prove correct) was also a revelation. Read this section and then turn to any N.Y. Times article discussing either global warming or the gender "wage gap" to see this cycle in action today. If you read the book (and I highly recommend it), look at the Kirkus Review of it for an example of what Dr. Sowell is talking about. Isn't funny how articulate liberal writers are "passionate" and articulate conservative writers are "venomous?"
|
