Social Justice Fallacies – the latest book from the fantastic Thomas Sowell – just passed his 93rd birthday – get it before they burn it!!!
You can see an interview with the great man here:
Consequences Matter: Thomas Sowell on “Social Justice Fallacies” | Uncommon Knowledge - YouTube
“436,873 views Premiered Sep 15, 2023
Recorded on September 7, 2023.
“Thomas Sowell, age 93, is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution. With his usual fierceness and feistiness intact, Dr. Sowell returns to Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson to discuss his latest book (he’s published over 40 titles over his career), Social Justice Fallacies.
In this wide-ranging interview, Dr. Sowell discusses the consequences of our society’s embarking on a quest for equality at the expense of merit. Even if every group in society is given an equal chance, he explains, these groups will end up with disparate levels of income or education.
Dr. Sowell also criticizes the concept of systemic racism; his research reveals it doesn’t appear to apply to blacks (watch the interview to see why that word isn’t capitalized here) who are married. The interview concludes with Dr. Sowell reading a moving passage from his book.”
The interview starts with Thomas Sowell’s answer to the question “What would happen if social justice was achieved?” – paraphrasing a little! – “We would all be killing each other”.
I am interested in the chapter on “Chess Pieces” that explains why – in support of Adam Smith – Sowell says that the global elites think they people can be moved around as pieces on a chess board to achieve an outcome. Not possible – the elites are too remote from the real world.
“It is not a subtle distinction, " Sowell wrote in his book. He then explained the chess piece fallacy, which occurs when a person "seems to imagine that he can arrange the members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces on a chess-board."
Barnes and Noble has it here for 28 bucks; in hardcover
Social Justice Fallacies by Thomas Sowell, Hardcover | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
Amazon UK here on Kindle 13 pounds;
Onwards!
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SOwell
Amazing interview and , I’m sure to find out, book. Thanks you!