Friday, September 11, 2009

President Obama for "social justice."


President Obama said he was committed to “social justice” in his speech to Congress this week. What exactly is, “social justice?” and what can the American people expect as the result of Obama’s desire to achieve it. To answer this assertion, Thomas Sowell has offered some clear analysis into the meaning of the code words “social justice.”

“Today’s “progressives” want to expand political control of incomes even more. They call it “social justice” but you could call it Rumpelstiltskin and it would still mean politicians deciding how much money each of us can be allowed to have.” Thomas Sowell, A Dangerous Obsession, December, 2006.

“Others who share a similarly secular view are often driven to personify "society" in order to re-introduce concepts of moral responsibility and justice into the cosmos, seeking to rectify the tragic misfortunes of individuals and groups through collective action in the name of "social justice." (7 p.5)

“In its pursuit of justice for a segment of society, in disregard of the consequences for society as a whole, what is called "social justice" might more accurately be called anti-social justice, since what consistently gets ignored or dismissed are precisely the costs to society.” (7 p.10)

“I never cease to be amazed at how often people throw around the lofty phrase "social justice" without the slightest effort to define it. It cannot be defined because it is an attitude masquerading as a principle. “Thomas Sowell, Random Thoughts, August 2, 2005

“Implicit in much discussion of a need to rectify social inequities is the notion that some segments of society, through no fault of their own, lack things which others receive as windfalls gains, through no virtue of their own. True as this may be, the knowledge required to sort this out intellectually, much less rectify it politically, is staggering and superhuman.” (7 p.13)

In short, “social justice” is the belief in re-distributing the outcomes of life, primarily through income, so that everyone has an equal share. It is a lofty sounding phrase used in lieu of actually stating what is being promoted, that being a command approach to government and the economy with power concentrated in the hands of a few who believe they can engineer utopia.

Obviously, President Obama believes he holds the requisite knowledge to understand the entirety of the cosmos and has the capacity to engineer it to adhere to his wishes in the creation of perfection.

That is stunning ignorance or arrogance. Either way, it should bring alarm to anyone who believes in and understands freedom and liberty under the constraints of human nature and scarcity.

Source: (7) Sowell, Thomas (1999). The quest for cosmic justice. New York, NY: The Free Press: A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

3 comments:

  1. You are making me lose faith in my President's abilities, Mr. Kalahar. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for telling me I have marsupial hands. Now everytime I look at my fingers I think of this.

    http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/set/1478/slothpict.htmlnk if this

    Even though a sloth isn't a marsupial.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scratch that, the link is no good.

    http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/set/1478/sloth20052small.jpg

    this one should work

    ReplyDelete