One of the great adventures in current human understanding is the search for the Grand Unified Theory of physics… an attempt at a construct that explains both quantum mechanics on one end of the scale and gravity on the other – one that brings the four forces of the universe: the strong and weak nuclear force, gravity and electromagnetism – all together into one big comfy equation (or set of equations.)
Thomas Sowell
I mention this because not too long ago I started reading A CONFLICT OF VISIONS by Thomas Sowell, and as I did, I started to get the sense that Sowell may have developed a Grand Unified Theory of politics, because he went (as usual) right to the core of the issue: beyond Republican / Democrat, beyond Conservative / Liberal… all the way down to the brass tacks of why people believe what they believe. — VIDEO BELOW THE FOLD…
Sowell argues that when it comes to the culture wars, each of us will be drawn to a specific trench not because of policies or parties but rather because of the vision we may hold of human beings and how they are constructed. He names these the Constrained and Unconstrained visions of humanity; Mankind either as constrained by his biology to moral weakness and self-interest, or, on the other hand, a creature unconstrained by his biology and therefore perfectible.
The kind of society you would construct for each model of the human heart is vastly different; opposite, even. And so I decided to test his theory against history and look for examples. The results are here:
Thomas Sowell is uplifting. He is also terribly depressing, at least to me. Because only when I read a mind like Thomas Sowell’s do I fully realize just what a second-rate thinker I really am. Still, he gives us something to aim at… no matter how far from the mark we may fall.
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