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Pacifists versus Peace?
Jul. 22nd, 2006 09:23 am♠
One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from reality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts.
"Peace" movements are among those who take advantage of this widespread inability to see beyond rhetoric to realities. Few people even seem interested in the actual track record of so-called "peace" movements -- that is, whether such movements actually produce peace or war.
-- Thomas Sowell, "Pacifists versus Peace"
I was going to lay off the red meat for a while, but then I saw this Sowell piece. It addresses some of the tensions experienced by some liberals who are hawkish on the Middle East. Who is not for peace and does not think war awful, especially if you are an egalitarian humanist? It is just that sometimes beautiful ideas can be misapplied. Whether that is the case in this instance, who knows? But here is a good case for the hawkish perspective, and what it may take to enjoy a true, long-term peace.
( Sowell column )
xXx
One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from reality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts.
"Peace" movements are among those who take advantage of this widespread inability to see beyond rhetoric to realities. Few people even seem interested in the actual track record of so-called "peace" movements -- that is, whether such movements actually produce peace or war.
-- Thomas Sowell, "Pacifists versus Peace"
I was going to lay off the red meat for a while, but then I saw this Sowell piece. It addresses some of the tensions experienced by some liberals who are hawkish on the Middle East. Who is not for peace and does not think war awful, especially if you are an egalitarian humanist? It is just that sometimes beautiful ideas can be misapplied. Whether that is the case in this instance, who knows? But here is a good case for the hawkish perspective, and what it may take to enjoy a true, long-term peace.
( Sowell column )
