http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1.asp
Jewish World Review April 4, 2006 / 6 Nissan, 5766
Thomas Sowell
Are facts obsolete?
What is more frightening than any particular policy or ideology
is the widespread habit of disregarding facts. Former House
Majority Leader ***** Armey put it this way: "Demagoguery beats
data."
People who urge us to rely on the United Nations, instead of
acting "unilaterally," or who urge us to follow other countries
in creating a government-run medical care system, often show not
the slightest interest in getting facts about the actual track
record of either the UN or government-run medical systems.
Those who believe in affirmative action likewise usually see no
reason to find out what actually happens under such policies, as
distinguished from what they wish, hope, or imagine happens.
The crusade for "a living wage" that will enable a worker to
support a family proceeds without the slightest interest in
finding out whether most people who are making low wages actually
have any family to support — much less seeking out the facts
about what actually happens after the government sets wages.
People who have made up their minds and don't want to be confused
by the facts are a danger to the whole society. Since the votes
of such people count just as much as the votes of people who know
what they are talking about, politicians have every incentive to
pass laws and create policies that pander to ignorant notions, if
those notions are widespread.
Even institutions that are set up to pass on facts — the media,
schools, academia — too often treat facts as expendable and use
their strategic positions to filter out facts which go against
their own preconceptions.
Crimes against homosexuals, blacks, or the homeless are big news
to be dramatized, repeated, and denounced. Crimes committed by
homosexuals, blacks, or the homeless are not — and are often
passed over in silence by much of the media. The net result is
that the public gets filtered facts, which can create an
impression the direct opposite of the truth.
We learn from the media's filtered facts that there are countries
with stronger gun-control laws than ours which have lower murder
rates. We seldom, if ever, learn from the media about countries
which have stronger gun-control laws than ours and whose murder
rates are two or three times higher than ours.
The media also filter out facts about countries where gun
ownership is far more widespread than in the United States — and
who nevertheless have lower murder rates.
Those who are in the business of teaching the young, whether in
the public schools or on college campuses, too often see this not
as a responsibility to pass on what is known but as an
opportunity to indoctrinate students with their own beliefs. Many
"educators" and the gurus who indoctrinated them actively
disparage "mere facts," which they say you can get from an
almanac or encyclopedia.
The net result is a student population that does not even know
enough to know what needs to be looked up, much less how to
analyze facts, so as to test opposing beliefs — as distinguished
from how to gather information to support a preconceived notion
that happens to be fashionable in the schools and colleges.
Yet people are considered to be "educated" after they have spent
so many years in ivy-covered buildings, absorbing the
preconceptions that prevail there.
Facts that go against preconceived notions are likely to be
ignored, even by many scholars. For example, slavery is an issue
that is widely discussed as if it were something peculiar to
Africans enslaved by Europeans, instead of something suffered and
inflicted around the world by people of every race, color, and
religion.
Two books about more European slaves brought to North Africa than
there were African slaves brought to America have been published
in recent years. They are "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters" by
Robert Davis and "White Gold" by Giles Milton. Both books have
been largely ignored by the media and academia alike — and the
first went out of print, less than 6 months after being
published.
Apparently scholars, as well as journalists, have made up their
minds and don't want to be confused by the facts.
--
Please read about the true principles of liberty at:
http//planetarybillofrights.org/
JOBS : http://planetarybillofrights.org/jobs.htm
.
|
