Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review March 14, 2000 /7 Adar II, 5760

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
David Corn
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Arianna Huffington
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Debbie Schlussel
Sam Schulman
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Cathy Young
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports
Newswatch

Econophone

Trakdata


Lessons not learned

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- WITH ALL OUR LOOKING BACK at the 20th century, we have missed some of its most blatant and most horrifying lessons. The worst horrors of this century, under both the Nazis and the Communists, came from concentrations of political power, brought about by heady rhetoric, powerful visions and emotional manipulations. Yet we remain as susceptible to all these things as if none of these horrors had happened.

The constitutional barriers that stand between us and the tyrannies that have swept over other peoples around the world are treated as things to be brushed aside or finessed when those who are skilled with words manipulate our emotions.

The constitution's proclamation of "equal protection of the laws" for all Americans is swept aside by saying the magic word "diversity," while creating preferences and quotas for some at the expense of others. Cry "Big Tobacco!" and due process of law vanishes into thin air. The first amendment to the constitution says that the right of free speech cannot even be infringed, but that is all forgotten in the stampede for "campaign finance reform."

There is nothing wrong with changing the constitution, which itself prescribes procedures for doing so. But we are playing with fire when we simply ignore the constitution or find clever ways around it. Without a constitution, we are at the mercy of whatever phrase or fashion sweeps across the political landscape.

Even Supreme Court justices, who are supposed to be guardians of the constitution, have often treated it as a nuisance to be gotten around or, worse yet, as political cover for using their power to advance whatever ideas they personally want to impose on the country. The federal government has only the powers specifically granted to it in the constitution, but many judges feel free to grant it more power when they happen to agree with its policies.

In a recent decision, Justice David Souter upheld campaign contribution restrictions on grounds that big contributions create "the perception of impropriety." Where does the constitution give the federal government the power to stop anything that creates the perception of impropriety? If it did, then any of our freedoms could be abolished just by using this magic phrase. Indeed, this decision opens the door to such an erosion in the years ahead.

Particular bad policies are the least of the dangers created by playing fast and loose with the constitution. Lawless power is the far greater danger -- and has been for centuries, though its worst horrors seem to have been reserved for the 20th century. Yet our judges, politicians and the intelligentsia play with fire as if they had never seen the conflagrations of this century.

The constitution is only the most visible part of a cultural heritage that has given us freedom which hundreds of millions of others around the world do not have. But dismantling that heritage is something that is being done every day -- whether in anger or in fun -- in our schools and colleges across the country, by people who congratulate themselves on being agents of "change."

Traditions distilled from the experiences of many generations past are treated as just somebody else's opinion, while we have a right to our own opinion, even when we are not yet a decade old. Children are told to discover their own ways of doing mathematics or of using the English language. They are encouraged to respond emotionally, rather than to analyze logically, on issues ranging from the environment to homelessness. "Public service" assignments give them emotional experiences without either the knowledge or the mental discipline to see below the surface.

In short, we and our children are being trained to be sheep and to respond automatically to words that strike an emotional chord. We are being set up to be played for suckers by anyone who wants to take up where the totalitarian movements of the 20th century left off.

The very tactics of those totalitarian movements -- intimidation, demonization, and disregard of all rules in favor of politically defined results -- have become hallmarks of political correctness today. Some people think political correctness is just silly. But many people thought Hitler was just silly before he took power and demonstrated how tragically mistaken they were.

Probably most of the people who go along with the destructive and dangerous trends of our time are no worse than the "useful idiots" who made totalitarianism possible. But that is bad enough.


JWR contributor Thomas Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, is author, most recently, of The Quest for Cosmic Justice.

Up

Thomas Sowell Archives

© 2000, Creators Syndicate