Vision of The Anointed

For Liberty!---and occasional levity. Freedom Lessons is a meeting place to learn from and equip one another as we persuade others to embrace individual freedom. The goal? A lasting cultural preference for freedom, limited government, free markets, respect for the Constitution and rule of law, and a more sensible and strong national defense. That's all.

The task we take very seriously. Ourselves, well, not so much...

The Vision of The Annointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
By Thomas Sowell
ISBN 0-465-08995

Ever wonder why elites in academia, the media, and government insist we keep trying the same redistributionist, collectivist, freedom-destroying schemes in spite of the historic fact that socialism fails every time it is tried? Thomas Sowell addresses this question in The Vision of The Anointed.

Leftist elites have a vision for the world, and that vision requires implementation of the social policies of their choosing. Whether it concerns poverty, welfare, education, toss out all historical lessons, empirical evidence, and common sense in their quest to mold reality to their vision. Such elites are the "anointed" class of experts, occupying prominent chairs in academia, federal bureaucracies, and talking heads titles in the media. They are anointed to positions of power and influence by the special wisdom it requires to look past plain evidence, history, and common sense, and they mean to rule the way you live your lives.

Those who oppose the agendas of the anointed class are the backwards-looking "benighted" class, unenlightened and blinded by the obsolete and antiquated notions of learning from past mistakes and limiting the expectations we have from government solutions to human problems: "For the anointed, traditions are likely to be seen as the dead hand of the past, relics of a less enlightened age, and not as the distilled experience of millions who faced similar human vicissitudes before."

In his typically brilliant fashion, Sowell brings his wealth of knowledge and experience to bear in a crisp and readable fashion. More than just highlight the intellectual and historical errors of the social policy of collectivist elites, Sowell reminds us of the real word effects of their vision and the detrimental economic aftermath that vision has wrought for millions of people. Written several years before A Conflict of Visions, these two books compliment one another well. We recommend they be read consecutively.