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Sowell presents a devastating critique of the mind-set behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Sowell sees what has happened during that time not as a series of isolated mistakes but as a logical consequence of a tainted vision whose defects have led to crises in education, crime, and family dynamics, and to other social pathologies. In this book, he describes how elitesthe anointedhave replaced facts and rational thinking with rhetorical assertions, thereby altering the course of our social policy.
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Dangers to a society may be mortal without being immediate. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an outstanding book. It provides an explanation for a great many anomalies that have puzzled or frustrated me over the years. The world is changing fast an unless we can improve on our current lamentable economic and sociological performance the future looks grim. Sowell does not provide a blueprints for how this might be done but he does have some powerful insights that should help to guide the way.
If you have studied systems - engineering, ecological, social and to some extent economic - as I have, you will understand why some actions that appear to be obviously correct have a much reduced or opposite effect to that intended. A brilliant, readable account of one case is given in `Risk' by John Adams. He describes, amongst many other things, why seat belts do not save lives or reduce accidents. (Read it - the argument is compelling.) Social and economic systems are much more complicated than seat belts and understanding them is much more difficult. (Hayek, in `The Fatal Conceit' takes the view that many are effectively beyond understanding.) The result is that governments intervene, guided by a dogma that is regarded as self-evidently correct and is rarely questioned. This is what Sowell calls the `Vision'. Because the vision is so deeply ingrained, the anointed find excuses for each failure and repeat the process. They learn nothing from history.
The writing style is serious of course, but the book is very readable and includes many interesting cases. These examples are American but most people will identify many similar cases in the UK. The vision, and problems it causes, are international.
This is a political message of course; and the response of many people will simply be to turn off. A little silent abuse will be, for many, enough to dismiss the unpleasant thought that they may be wrong. However, for anyone interested in our political systems, who is objective enough to consider the whole spectrum of views, this book is a must.
If you have studied systems - engineering, ecological, social and to some extent economic - as I have, you will understand why some actions that appear to be obviously correct have a much reduced or opposite effect to that intended. A brilliant, readable account of one case is given in `Risk' by John Adams. He describes, amongst many other things, why seat belts do not save lives or reduce accidents. (Read it - the argument is compelling.) Social and economic systems are much more complicated than seat belts and understanding them is much more difficult. (Hayek, in `The Fatal Conceit' takes the view that many are effectively beyond understanding.) The result is that governments intervene, guided by a dogma that is regarded as self-evidently correct and is rarely questioned. This is what Sowell calls the `Vision'. Because the vision is so deeply ingrained, the anointed find excuses for each failure and repeat the process. They learn nothing from history.
The writing style is serious of course, but the book is very readable and includes many interesting cases. These examples are American but most people will identify many similar cases in the UK. The vision, and problems it causes, are international.
This is a political message of course; and the response of many people will simply be to turn off. A little silent abuse will be, for many, enough to dismiss the unpleasant thought that they may be wrong. However, for anyone interested in our political systems, who is objective enough to consider the whole spectrum of views, this book is a must.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read three of Sowells books, The Vision of the Anointed, A Conflict of Visions and The quest for cosmic justice. This is the best of the three. His themes in many of these books is that the liberal elite, anointed, call them what you will has successfully advanced its agenda for many years.
This is hardly news in itself, but what Sowell does to great effect is explain what the underlying cause of their beliefs is, ie that mankind can be perfected at no cost if we were to just give the right people power over us. He highlights the media and its complicitness in not examining the facts that the anointed put forwards, even when a fairly simple look at the figures would reveal the truth to be the exact opposite.
His chapter on judicial activism, the use of courts to create legislation in direct contravention of the written law of the land, is illuminating. Often Judges clearly overstep the limits of their power and invent completely new laws. Despite the fact that most of the examples are American one does not have to look too far to see parallels in Britain, (ie. the Bulger case and the European courts pro IRA verdicts)
Paul Johnson the Historian who writes for the Daily Mail and Spectator in the U.K. has said he considers Thomas Sowell to be the greatest living Philosopher/Commentator in America and the rest of the world yet aside from that his work gets very little exposure in this country.
Sowells biggest strength is observing the common patterns of deception that the left uses time and time again without being picked up on it. His book conveys often conveys complex information yet never alienates itself from a lay reader. A Superb book.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had long been a fan of economist and columnist Thomas Sowell when I bought this book. I greatly appreciate, especially coming from a black man, his precise analysis of why liberal politics and practices have been an utter failure in the area of liberating minorities from, what is portrayed by popular thought, the evils of capitalism. The very ones who have profited most from capitalist economics denounce it as the best means for minorities to rise from depression because they have "annointed" themselves as the intellectual and morally superior ones from whom all proper goverenment should flow. That's because you, who only care about your own survival, can't be relied upon to make the correct political decisions for everyone else. Only they have the "vision" to do so.
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Exceptional, insightful analysis
I thought this was a terrific analysis of the culture of political debate today. Of course not every example should be taken as read, Sowell explicitly encourages us to go and... Read more
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An fascinating but faulty polemic
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A must.
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Published on 13 Aug 1999
Excellent
Right on! The only person who could disagree with this book is one of the "anointed".
Published on 12 Jun 1999
Now I finally understand liberals!
What an incredible book! I have always leaned towards a more conservative ideology but never unnderstood why. Read more
Published on 19 April 1999
A good book with few holes
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. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 1999
Recent history and current events prove this book's worth!
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... Read more
Published on 11 Mar 1999
The finest political science of this decade
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. Read more
Published on 20 Feb 1999
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