THOMAS SOWELL

Ask Thy Elders And They Will Tell Thee


  

    
 

TOM SOWELL says "THEY LIE and
commit character assassination" (1 min, 37 sec)

People will LIE and commit CHARACTER ASSASSINATION
for their ideals, delusions, fantasies, dogmas, fanaticisms,
ideologies, notions, conceits, concepts, opinions, VISIONS -
no matter how wrong empirical (fact-tested) reality proves them.
 
    
 

The "TYRANNY OF VISIONS" (10 sec)

The "TYRANNY OF VISIONS" means people would
rather believe a beautiful, comforting fable or
fairy tale than face hard, cold facts,
AND they'd do ANYTHING to people who disagree
or challenge their fables and fairy tales.
 
    
 

Sowell Defines "Cosmic Justice" at (min 0, sec 11),
Speaking at The Harvard Club in Manhattan (14 min, 18 sec)

Sowell uses "Cosmic Justice" to describe
the impossible dream of making the whole universe
perfectly fair.  Playing God (Trying to fix every
disadvantage from birth, luck, and history)
 
  

THOMAS SOWELL, SENIOR FELLOW AT THE HOOVER INSTITUTION at STANFORD UNIVERSITY,

SCROLL DOWN    DOCTOR SOWELL GRADUATED MAGNA CUM LAUDE IN ECONOMICS FROM HARVARD UNIVERSITY IN 1958.    SCROLL DOWN











In my own simplified, "kitchen-table" language, I will provide simpler synonyms for a few words and phrases Doctor Sowell Uses,

"vision" = worldview (how the world is), mindset (mental attitudes to interpret the world), schema (your mental framework that organizes all your ideas)

"constrained" = restrained, held back, tethered, curbed

"Unconstrained Vision" = "naive mindset that people are basically good and things will work out fine if people are left to their own devices"

"Constrained Vision" = "reality-based, grounded ideas and mindsets that people are naturally flawed and selfish, and so therefore rules, boundaries and controls
are necessary to keep things from falling into chaos"

"Cosmic Justice" - the impossible dream of making the whole universe perfectly fair.
Playing God (Trying to fix every disadvantage from birth, luck, and history)

"Anointed" - the "self-anointed" smug know-it-alls, self-righteous bossy "elites" who think they should rule everyone else, and think they know better.
Tom Sowell is being sarcastic when he refers to liberal elites as "the anointed," meaning that THEY think they are anointed and so much better than the rest of us.

"Vision of The Anointed" is the "unconstrained", chaos vision that people are good (Rousseau) and everything will work out
if they're left alone and not constrained by laws

"empirical" - Reality-based, based on facts and not just theory

you can think of "constrained" and "unconstrained" visions humorously as reflected by "CONTROL" AND "KAOS" (chaos) spy agencies in the comedy "Get Smart."

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"The Fancier Your Education,
The More Likely You Are To Be Wrong" (12 sec)
 
    
 

Tom Sowell Turns 95 in 2025 (2 min, 24 sec)
 
    
 

FACTS against RHETORIC
(1 min, 41 sec)
 
  

At age 17, Thomas Sowell used to walk from a room on 142nd Street in Harlem to work at a machine shop below The Brooklyn Bridge on NYC's Lower East Side (7 miles)
because he only had enough money for either food or subway, and he chose food.  (I had that same difficult choice often, in North Dakota in 2013 -food or warmth (propane),
because the "deep state" ("the feds", the employers told me) had blacklisted me. I was in denial and never really believed it for a long time,
but it became BLATANTLY APPARENT WHEN THEY DID IT TO ME AGAIN AT A GALLUP, NEW MEXICO SCHOOL in 2016
,
and MAYBE they did it to me AGAIN THIS YEAR (2025 - 2026) at PA dept of motor vehicles in Harrisburg PA!
I relate so much to Tom Sowell, 20 years my senior, as I used to bike from a room at Journal Square, Jersey City to UPS in Secaucus NJ (3.6 miles), one day chased by a pack of feral dogs.
That's just a snapshot but it highlights how aligned I am with Dr Sowell in so many ways, especially his philosophy and thinking.
Two New Yorkers, he and I (Northern Jersey, the 6th Borough of New York City).

He says, for example, he learned at that early age that ordinary people knew far more than intellectuals, and learned that those "ordinary people" knew a hell of a lot,
and a hell of a lot more than he did about things that mattered.  He and I have that disdain for intellectuals in common, as well.
AI RESPONSE  Thomas Sowell's lifelong critique of intellectual elitism can be described in many ways.  While he is an esteemed scholar, he has a profound distrust of abstract theorizing
and often elevates the practical, real-world wisdom of everyday people above the insulated, academic class.
The Paradox of The Critic. Though he is an intellectual himself, Thomas Sowell has always been a fierce critic of the intellectual class,
consistently prioritizing the common sense of ordinary people over abstract, ivory-tower theorizing.
Faith In The Common Man. Sowell has built his career exposing the blind spots of intellectual elites, championing the grounded perspectives of ordinary people - a worldview I share.
THE "VISION OF THE ANOINTED." Sowell often challenges what he calls the "VISION OF THE ANOINTED" ("THE MINDSET OF THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS KNOW-IT-ALLS) -
a mindset where elites believe they know what is best for the masses - and like Sowell, I deeply respect the autonomy and good judgment of ordinary citizens.
Academic Hubris: A brilliant scholar in his own right, Sowell has spent a lifetime critiquing the arrogance of the intellectual class while celebrating the practical intelligence
of everyday people.  I share this exact sentiment.
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Dr Sowell Debating at UCDavis in 1986 with Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley, opposing Albert Shanker et al.
(I attended that debate about School Vouchers, as I was in a teacher credentialing program at Sac State, 20.2 miles from UCDavis.)
Will And Ariel Durant                  I HAD GRADUATED FROM UCDAVIS IN 1979 with a B.A. in History (U.S and European)                  Will And Ariel Durant
One of the best classes I ever took in college was at UCDavis, "The Age of Revolution" which covered The French Revolution and Napoleon.
The Professor, Dr Schwab earned his Ph.D. on that subject at Harvard and he enthused about reading French Documents from the era (in French).
I was REALLY READY for the class, ANTICIPATING IT because I had read Will and Ariel Durant's "The Age of Voltaire" and "Rousseau And Revolution" before I joined the navy in 1973
  

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Second Hour

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    Three years later in 1989, Albert Shanker walked across the hall to personally greet me at Stanford, just before his debate with Law Professor Coons of UC Berkeley
SCROLL To "Encounters With Greatness, On the Radars of the Remarkable"
Albert Shanker Knew Who I Was

ALBERT SHANKER
Three Years Before Albert Shanker Greeted Me at Stanford, he participated in a big Firing Line Debate on Privitization 3 years earlier
at UC Davis with Albert Shanker, Tom Sowell, Milton Friedman, and William F Buckley
I attended that debate with some classmates from Sac State when I was in the teacher education program there.


SCROLL DOWN to Common Sense In A Senseless World, With Jason Riley











SCROLL DOWN to Vision of The Anointed

("vulgarizing" language for understanding.) "ANOINTED"		replace with "SELF-ANOINTED"
Self-anointed describes someone who has declared themselves to be an expert, leader, or authority figure without external validation, formal election, or true divine calling.
People frequently use it as a disapproving term to describe an arrogant person and sense of being superior to others.
Dr Sowell uses the term "anointed" in a mocking, sarcastic sense to smoothly express contemptuous disapproval of their unwarranted sense of self-importance and superiority.
Synonyms for "self-anointed" are "self-appointed" "self-proclaimed" "self-declared" and "self-ordained"
And Dr Sowell is referring to the intellectual-    the education-    the media-    "elite,"  who are full of shallow and feel-good ideas, beliefs, or opinions (VISIONS)
and it refers to, generally, the baby-boomer brats and their intellectual and cultural progeny.

the word "vulgar" defined. The term originates from the Latin word vulgaris, which simply means "of or pertaining to the common people or the crowd."
It comes from the root vulgus (the common mob or general public).
When the word entered the English language in the late Middle Ages, it carried no negative or offensive meaning.
Instead, it was used neutrally to describe things belonging to or used by ordinary people.

I will build a separate page to re-define words that, in my opinion, should be replaced by more understandable words, to reduce confusion,
though Dr Sowell has a reason, i.e. "poetic license" to use "high-falutin' " terminology, as a sarcastic, mocking dig.
Other such terms he uses are "Cosmic" and "Vision," which more "commonly" or more "vulgarly" means ideas, thoughts, beliefs, concepts.






Tom Sowell "The Vision of The Anointed" (14 min, 19 sec)

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A Conflict of Visions (Uncommon Knowledge With Peter Robinson)

Book 1	A Conflict of Visions

Book 2	Visions of The Anointed

Book 3	The Quest For Cosmic Justice