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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 29,645 Likes: 5
Campfire Ranger
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OP
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 29,645 Likes: 5 |
Anybody else read it?
I brought it on vacation and found it extraordinarily clarifying.
Discuss...
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 29,645 Likes: 5
Campfire Ranger
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OP
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 29,645 Likes: 5 |
Anyone read this book?
He does an outstanding job of getting to the foundational issue between those with what he calls the Constrained & Unconstrained Visions, pointing to differences in anthropology.
That is, those with the constrained vision see men as flawed and therefore recognize that governance involves limited trade offs but never complete solutions. Those with the Unconstrained vision, however, see man as significantly improveable (yes, some would call him perfectable) and therefore attempt to find definitive solutions to problems that face society, giving enormous power to a select few as a worthwhile investment.
He gives a great deal of historical examples including the American vs French revolutions among many others.
Great stuff; highly recommended. Had hoped more here had already read it as I found it a very clarifying way to look at contemporary political divisions that gets under the common rhetoric.
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 955
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 955 |
Yeah, he’s a bright guy. He also is a former left-winger.
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Joined: May 2018
Posts: 1,509
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2018
Posts: 1,509 |
Hobbes vs. Locke viewpoints of mankind.
Old guy, old guns.
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Joined: Apr 2019
Posts: 6,030
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Apr 2019
Posts: 6,030 |
He's black, so according to a bunch of guys here he must necessarily be nothing but a neegger and have nothing worthwhile to say.
Tarquin
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,113 Likes: 1
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,113 Likes: 1 |
Thomas Sowell: “if a government is given enough power to create social justice it has enough power to create despotism.”
Me: “and it will.”
I referenced TS in my July 14 blog on the American Thinker.
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 29,645 Likes: 5
Campfire Ranger
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OP
Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 29,645 Likes: 5 |
Hobbes vs. Locke viewpoints of mankind. Yep I found his grasp of the historical traditions and the anthropological underpinnings of the positions powerful. I’ve always wondered how the Calvinists of the NE became so Liberal; seems like an oxymoron. Thomas Sowell: “if a government is given enough power to create social justice it has enough power to create despotism.”
Me: “and it will.”
Exactly right brother.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,691 Likes: 15
Campfire Sage
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Campfire Sage
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 131,691 Likes: 15 |
Anybody else read it?
I brought it on vacation and found it extraordinarily clarifying.
Discuss... Have it in my library. I remember very much enjoying reading it back in the 1980s.
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