Words That Replace Thought
by Thomas Sowell
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Thinking Obsolete?
If there is
ever a contest for words that substitute for thought, "diversity"
should be recognized as the undisputed world champion.
You don't need
a speck of evidence, or a single step of logic, when you rhapsodize
about the supposed benefits of diversity. The very idea of testing
this wonderful, magical word against something as ugly as reality
seems almost sordid.
To ask whether
institutions that promote diversity 24/7 end up with better or worse
relations between the races than institutions that pay no attention
to it is only to get yourself regarded as a bad person. To cite
hard evidence that places obsessed with diversity have worse race
relations is to risk getting yourself labeled an incorrigible racist.
Free thinking is not free.
The Supreme
Court of the United States has ruled that the government has a "compelling
interest" in promoting diversity – apparently more compelling than
the 14th Amendment's requirement of "equal protection" of the law
for everybody.
How does a
racially homogeneous country like Japan manage to have high quality
education, without the essential ingredient of diversity, for which
there is supposedly a "compelling" need?
Conversely,
why does India, one of the most diverse nations on Earth, have a
record of intergroup intolerance and lethal violence today that
is worse than that in the days of our Jim Crow South?
Even to ask
such questions is to provoke charges of unworthy tactics, and motives
too low to be dignified with an answer. Not that the true believers
in diversity could answer anyway.
Among the candidates
for runner-up to "diversity" as the top word for making thought
obsolete is "fair."
Apparently
everyone is entitled to a "fair share" of a society's prosperity,
whether they worked 16-hour days to help create that prosperity
or did nothing more than live off the taxpayers or depend on begging
or crime to bring in a few bucks.
Apparently
we owe them something just for gracing us with their presence, even
if we feel that we could do without them quite well.
At the other
end of the income scale, the rich are supposed to pay their "fair
share" of taxes. But at neither end of the income scale is a "fair
share" defined as a particular number or proportion, or in any other
concrete way. It is just a political synonym for "more," dressed
up in moralistic-sounding rhetoric. What "fair" really means is
more arbitrary power for government.
Another word
that shuts down thought is "access." People who fail to meet the
standards for anything from college admission to a mortgage loan
are often said to have been denied "access" or opportunity.
But equal
access or equal opportunity is not the same as equal probability
of success. Republicans are not denied an equal opportunity to vote
in California, even though the chances of a Republican candidate
actually getting elected in California are far less than the chances
of a Democrat getting elected.
By the same
token, if everyone is allowed to apply for college admission, or
for a mortgage loan, and their applications are all judged by the
same standards, then they have equal opportunity, even if the village
idiot has a lower probability of getting into the Ivy League, and
someone with a bad credit history is less likely to be lent money.
"Affordable"
is another popular word that serves as a substitute for thought.
To say that everyone is entitled to "affordable housing" is very
different from saying that everyone should decide what kind of housing
he or she can afford.
Government
programs to promote "affordable housing" are programs to allow some
people to decide what housing they want and force other people –
taxpayers, landlords or whatever – to absorb a share of the cost
of a decision that they had no voice in making.
More generally,
making various things "affordable" in no way increases the amount
of wealth in a society above what it would be when prices are "prohibitively
expensive." On the contrary, price controls reduce incentives to
produce.
None of this
is rocket science. But if you don't stop and think, it doesn't matter
whether you are a genius or a moron. Words that stop people from
thinking reduce even smart people to the same level as morons.
May
8, 2013
Thomas
Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University. His Web site is www.tsowell.com.
To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other
Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators
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