Townhall.com, Where Your Opinion Counts
Talk Radio:   Bill Bennett   Mike Gallagher   Dennis Prager   Michael Medved   Hugh Hewitt   
BREAKING NEWS  LeftArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican   RightArrow - Townhall.com : Conservative, Political, Republican  
Columns, funnies & more in your inbox!
  • Check the boxes and send us your email address to receveive your free newsletter
  • Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
  • Townhall.com’s weekly inside scoop on what’s happening behind the scenes in the world of politics. When news breaks, we report.
  • Signup to receive the latest daily Townhall cartoons
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com Columnist
Freedom and the Left
by Thomas Sowell
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
[+] Text [-]
 
Poll
Was the Copenhagen Global Warming Summit Walk-Out a Win for the U.S.?


The most fundamental question is: What in the world qualifies teachers and members of college admissions committees to define what is good for society as a whole, or even for the students on whom they impose their arbitrary notions?

What expertise do they have that justifies overriding other people's freedom? What do their arbitrary impositions show, except that fools rush in where angels fear to tread?

What lessons do students get from this, except submission to arbitrary power?

Supposedly students are to get a sense of compassion or noblesse oblige from serving others. But this all depends on who defines compassion. In practice, it means forcing students to undergo a propaganda experience to make them receptive to the left's vision of the world.

I am sure those who favor "community service" requirements would understand the principle behind the objections to this if high school military exercises were required.

Indeed, many of those who promote compulsory "community service" activities are bitterly opposed to even voluntary military training in high schools or colleges, though many other people regard military training as more of a contribution to society than feeding people who refuse to work.

In other words, people on the left want the right to impose their idea of what is good for society on others-- a right that they vehemently deny to those whose idea of what is good for society differs from their own.

The essence of bigotry is refusing to others the rights that you demand for yourself. Such bigotry is inherently incompatible with freedom, even though many on the left would be shocked to be considered opposed to freedom.

1 2
| Full Article & Comments | < Previous
Share:
Vote on It:
Average Vote:
 
About The Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of The Housing Boom and Bust.
 
TOWNHALL DAILY: Sign up today and receive Thomas Sowell and Townhall.com's daily lineup delivered each morning to your inbox.
 
©Creators Syndicate
Freedom and the Left, by Lee
Sir, You should spend some time reading Karl R. Popper's 'The Open Society and Its Enemies, Part 1, The spell of Plato.' Popper properly defines Individualism as opposed to Collectivism and selfishness as opposed to altruism. Popper states that Plato has caused much philosophical confusion down through the ages by saying that individualism is equivalent to selfishness. I am so sad for you and those like you who don't properly understand the world as it is, rather than the world as they wished it were. Answer this: If individualists are selfish, why do their donations to charity far outweigh the miserable donations of the so called Liberals? Huh?

A Misguided Rant on Freedom
The entirety of Mr. Sowell’s editorial is filled with rhetorical sleights of hand and misapplied ipso facto logic.

To begin, Mr. Sowell claims that requiring students, in high school or college, to perform community service is somehow abridging their basic freedoms.

Mr Sowell goes on to claim that some mysterious group of “people on the left” …are systematically in favor of things that are incompatible with freedom” and, are therefore, bigots. Missing in all of his histrionics is any proof that community service requirements are solely the province of left-leaning activists in Blue-state America or why this has anything to do with bigotry.

Mr. Sowell also complains, with no shread of evidence, that “the left” has arbitrarily imposed a definition of what can and cannot be considered community service.

Even beyond these illogical arguments, Mr. Sowell veers off into another rant that, among other things, equates working in a homeless shelter to aiding and abetting vagrancy and that welfare and other entitlement programs are the proximate cause of ”..people not working, hanging out in the streets, aggressively panhandling people on sidewalks, urinating on the street, and leaving narcotics needles in the parks where children play.”

So let’s have some fun and connect the dots of Mr. Sowell’s argument. There exists a group of left-leaning activists, unknowingly bigoted in their actions, who are arbitrarily defining which activities can be considered as community service and that these very services performed by students are causing people to not work, urinate in the streets, and leave their narcotic needles near to playing children. As absurd as the above sounds, this is exactly the assertion of Mr. Sowell’s editorial.

The extent to which Mr. Sowell tortures logic in making his editorial points shows the difficulty he had in trying to paint something inherently good in such a bad light.

Sign Up to Post Your CommentsSign Up to Post Your Comments
If you are already registered, click here to login. Otherwise, please take a few seconds to register with Townhall.com. Once you sign up, you’ll be able to post your comments immediately, use the action center, get podcasts, and more!
Note: Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required.
Salutation:
First Name:
*
Last Name:
*
Email:
*
Nickname:
*
Note: Nick name will be shown when you post comments.
Address 1:
*
Address 2:
City:
*
State:
*
Zip:
*
Phone:
      
Your daily must-read of conservative columns, cartoons and news. Coulter, Sowell, Krauthammer and more.
(Bi-Weekly) We highlight the best opportunities from our partners for surveys, action items and more.