Intellectuals and Society . . . thats the name of the book I am currently reading. Thomas Sowell, its author has become one of my favorite thinkers/authors because his insights and thought processes are so logical and far-sighted. Not because he created some imaginary, visionary, dream of a Utopian society in his own head . . . . like so many social visionaries today . . . but because his world is grounded in reality and actual history, supported by actual facts instead of political rhetoric and propaganda. Yesterday, I read the following example, of one of the weaknesses that afflict many intellectuals . . . in past history, and is rampant in intellectual circles today (including that most powerful circle - the White House Oval office). In the chapter titled: Knowledge and Notions, under the subtitle: One Day at a Time Rationalism, he wrote this example that applies directly to our world, and the events unfolding in Ukraine today. [Begin quote from book] Intellectuals faith in reason sometimes takes the form of believing themselves capable of deciding each issue ad hoc as it arises. In principle, reason can be applied to as limited or as expansive a time period as one wishes -a day, a year, a generation, or a century, for example- by analyzing the implications of decisions over whatever span of time may be chosen. One-day-at-a-time rationalism risks restricting its analysis to the immediate implications of each issue as it arises, missing wider implications of a decision that may have merit as regards the issue immediately at hand, considered in isolation, but which can be disastrous in terms of the ignored longer-term repercusions. A classic example was a French intellectuals response to the Czechoslovakian crisis that led to the Munich conference in 1938 [thats the Conference wherein the French and British governments sold out the Czechs to Hitler and from which Neville Chamberlain returned to give his famous speech declaring that he had achieved Peace for our time.]: An eminent French political scientist, Joseph Barthelemy, who taught constitutional law at the University of Paris and was French representative at the League of Nations, asked in Les Temps the question French leaders had to answer: is it worthwhile setting fire to the world in order to save the Czechoslovak state, a heap of different nationalities? is it necessary that three million Frenchmen, all the youth of our universities, of our schools, our countryside and our factories would be sacrificed to maintain three million Germans under Czech sovereignty? Since it was not France that was threatening to set fire to the world, but Hitler, the larger question was whether someone who was threatening to set fire to the world if he didnt get his way was someone who should be appeased in this one-day-at-a-time approach, without regard to what this appeasement could do to encourage a never-ending series of escalating demands. By contrast, Winston Churchill had pointed out, six years earlier, that every concession which has been made to Germany has been followed immediately by a fresh demand. Churchill clearly rejected one-day-at-a-time rationalism. By the time that Barthelemy addressed the Czechoslovakian crisis, Hitler had already taken the crucial step toward preparing for war by remilitarizing the Rhineland, in defiance of treaty commitments, had initiated military conscription, when there was no military threat against Germany, and had seized Austria by force. As Winston Churchill said at the time, Europe is confronted with a program of aggression, nicely calculated and timed, unfolding stage by stage. This raised the longer run question posed by Churchill: How many friends would be alienated, how many potential allies should we see go, one by one, down the grisly gulf, how many times would bluff succeed, until behind bluff ever-gathering forces had accumulated reality? In short, the handwriting was on the wall for anyone who wanted to read it. and presenting the immediate Czechoslovakian crisis in isolation was one way of not facing the implications of a series of actions over a longer span of time, leading toward a growing threat, as more and more resources came under the control of Nazi Germany, increasing its military potential. That threat would be even greater with the significant resources of Czechoslovakia under Hitlers control- as Franc would discover just two years later, when an invading German army battered them into quick submission, using among other things tanks manufactured in Czechoslovakia. {End of quote from book] This description of the situation that was unfolding throughout the 1930s . . . and which is being repeated in Ukraine today . . . points out perfectly the weakness that afflicts our nations leadership today: They are not capable of (or are willingly choosing not to) think beyond today. Every decision they make and every justification they give for making them is presented in terms of only seeing today, and ignoring the obvious consequences that will surely come tomorrow, or next year . . . but which will surely come eventually. And we, the American people, are content to accept this kind of intellectual dishonesty for two reasons: 1. because we only live for today . . . and 2. because we have stopped teaching actual history in our schools so Americans have lost the ability to learn from the lessons of history and apply them to their choices made today. Having never been exposed to any real history . . . real History lessons have been replaced by social studies and environmentalism in our schools . . . with the specific intent that we would become ignorant of the lessons that real History could teach us . . . lessons that would prevent us from making the same mistakes every 70-80 years . . . we are no longer capable of even understanding the important questions, much less making the hard decisions that would save us from world wide disaster. Real History would teach us that bills come due - you cant borrow and spend your way to financial stability and wealth. Real History would teach us that Theres no such thing as a free lunch - for every freebie that you take, there is an eventual price that must be paid. You cant increase the number of people who will use healthcare resources and increase the scope of their access to those resources - AND pay LESS for those services than you once paid. It is an economic impossibility, but it is easy to sell in a world where no one can see beyond today. People are now astounded, and offended that Obamacare is not living up to the promises that were made when it was sold to them. Real History would have taught them to recognize the absurdity of the sales pitch when it was first uttered. Real History would have taught them this most basic lesson: Theres no such thing as a free lunch. It would have taught them that anyone who thinks there is a free lunch and that they are the magical recipient of a free lunch, is an idiot. We have become a nation of idiots. One-day-at-a-time thinking is destroying our nation . . . and it is making WWIII, not only possible, but inevitable. Ukraine is the bread basket of Europe. It is the agricultural equivalent of the Great Plains of the United States and Canada. There are two places in the world where the overwhelming majority of wheat is grown in the world: The Great Plains, and the Ukraine. When Russia takes the Ukraine, they will not only have control of the majority of the energy resources in in Europe and Northern Asia, they will also have control of a very large percentage of the food supply . . . and we are going to simply let them take it, believing that we can appease the appetite of evil. The appetite of evil is insatiable. The more you feed it, the hungrier it becomes. Churchill understood that . . . because he was, first and foremost, a student of real History . . . and History has revealed that fact over and over and over again. If you really want to understand what is happening in Europe today, read The Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill, in which he describes the history of Europe following the end of WWI and rise to power of Adolph Hitler, up to and including his take-over of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Poland, Belgium, and France . . . and youll see that we are making exactly the same mistakes today that were made then. They say that one definition of insanity is this: Doing the same thing over and over and over again, but expecting a different result each time you do it. If that is the definition of insanity, then we are being led by mad men and women. See amazon/The-Gathering-Storm-Second-World/dp/039541055X/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1XK9XMMYS7MJ6NT61FBX
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 15:42:15 +0000
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