Dismantling America: and other controversial essays

The book is a compilation of Sowell's columns, and so covers a wide array of topics. While no issue is covered in-depth, each essay is well-written and thought provoking. I particularly like the author's focus on history--he makes it clear that the current mess the country is in didn't happen overnight--our society has been crumbling for the past 40 years, and things are now reaching crisis level. The book is an excellent, and sobering, overview of our society.

In this collection from his newspaper columns Sowell sights a number of disturbing trends which he claims are contributing to the erosion of defining, American foundations. For instance he sights bills being pushed through without a clear understanding of what is in them. He writes about confirmations to significant positions of political power being rushed through without a proper due-diligence. He also provides examples of long-held values being undermined - all in the name of progress.

Sowell points out startling similarities with what is going on in America and what happened to the Roman empire. He also suggests that once the Roman empire was dismantled it could never be put back together again. Some are certain to see Sowell as a doom-n-gloom prophet shouting about the coming fall of Humpty-Dumpty. Others will see him as a common sense writer who rightly identifies what should be more obvious to many.

In short, America is distancing itself from what it once was. Sowell suggest we are becoming soft, weak, and a culture of pacifism as we capitulate to the demands of other cultures, including Muslim nations.

The primary atrocity Sowell sees is the unfairness to the generations yet born. Those who are coming behind us will be handed something far less beautiful than what we have been given. When it comes to what political leaders are doing, Thomas doesn't shy away from the words `systematic denigration'.

The book is a sobering work comparing and contrasting what was and what is and what will likely be if the current direction continues.

I've become a huge Thomas Sowell fan. Yes, this book is taken from his articles, but that is okay with me, because I believe they are worth reading several times over. As a person who loves this Country and who has sworn to put my life on the line do defend its Constitution, Sowell both motivates and inspires me to do more than just complain about things.

It really does seem like there is a growing segment of our society (now about 25 to 30 percent) who have little or no respect for truth, integrity, or responsibility, because such things have been systematically removed from their vocabulary while growing up. The term law abiding is almost foreign to them. It is a sad state of affairs. Such people really do feel that the government OWES them everything without having to give anything.

Our founding fathers were great readers of history and they worked very hard to create a Constitution that would help us as a nation to have the freedom to grow and expand, and more importantly, to endure. They not only set limits and boundaries for our government, but sternly warned us as to what would happen if we ignored such boundaries. So, it should not be a very big surprise, that almost every dire consequence that they predicted (i.e. what had happened to other nations throughout history) is now happening to us.

Because the boundaries of the Constitution are so clear, and the warning of not following so stern, only a fool would try to argue that the what is happening to cause America's degradation is done by happenstance rather than the intentional dismantling of the American way of life. It would be like sticking a knife into someone's chest and then being surprised that they would bleed to death and die.

A WORD OF CAUTION: Thomas Sowell will educate you and wake you up out of your political slumber. When that happens, you might want to join the Tea Party movement and begin speaking out and taking action to defend our US Constitution. When that happens there is a very high chance that those who call themselves progressives (those dismantling our Constitution) will become offended. And because they don't have a high regard for following laws, (because they equate liberty with the freedom from moral discipline), there is a high chance that they will treat you in the same way they treat conservative politicians and they will try to accuse you falsely of wrong doing. They will lie about you and perhaps call you a racist. All of these things are meant to harm your reputation.

Therefore, I would highly recommend getting another book called, [[ASIN:0814415091 Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier]]. This book tells you how to proactively manage your reputation by teaching you where to look for the problems that Liberals might cause you and then how to repair them. This is very important because when looking for a new job (or getting a new client) people will judge you by what they find online, so it is best that you control that. So get this book too, so you'll have the armor you need while fighting to protect our Constitution.

[[ASIN:0465022510 Dismantling America: and other controversial essays]]

Thomas Sowell is one of the most brilliant economists and thinkers alive today. This book contains the thoughts of a thoughtful and logical man and is an excellent and informative read. Although this book is not footnoted since it is a selection of columns he has written, most all of his books are extensively footnoted.

Sowell's [[ASIN:0465002056 A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles]]is one of his best among the many I have read and is a work which should be required reading in every university and every member of Congress. It is his best work.

If you have read and enjoyed The Thomas Sowell Reader (written in 2011), this is a great companion read from a year earlier. Each essay is newspaper article short (2-3 pages), and stands alone. This volume covers a number of issues from the Obama presidency, and is a great counterpoint the arguments put forward by the Main Stream Media. Sowell writes in a logical and understandable style, and his positions are always founded in facts, not what we might want to believe. This volume and The Thomas Sowell Reader should be required reading for every high school student.

The underlying theme of "Disappointing America" is the decline of the values and institutions that have sustained and advanced American society for more than two centuries. The essays were originally published as newspaper columns. I have admired Sowell's past writings, especially on the failures of poverty programs and public education; however, this book ignores too much reality. Part of the problem is that his columns are too short to be substantive in their treatment of today's increasingly complex world. However, the biggest problem is that Sowell and others are stuck in the past. We now have a largely free-enterprise, definitely laissez-faire health system that consumes almost 3X the GDP that high-technology competitor Taiwan requires (about equal outcomes) -Sowell's defending this FOUR times is ridiculous. Similarly, our globe-spanning wasteful military undermines itself by providing a foreign presence in some 130 nations and has become vulnerable to asymmetric warfare (supersonic guided missiles that can nullify a trillion-dollar nuclear-powered super-carrier task force, IEDs, terrorists), support for an 'ally' (Israel) that has brought us 9/11, a never ending War on Terror, and the Arab Oil Embargo. Again, Sowell shows he's out of touch. Our 'democratic government' has become the laughing stock of the world - checks and balances, and partisanship so intense that allow nothing significant to be accomplished, extensive business lobbying power. A largely unfettered free-enterprise system that has piled up $9+ trillion in Free Trade deficits and encouraged millions of illegals and their 'Anchor babies' to enter the country and our workforce, while costing tens of millions their jobs, and requiring a $2+ trillion bail-out after nearly wrecking the economy in 2007.

Bottom-Line: I share Sowell's concerns, but regret that he has become too attached to the past. It used to be that 40-acres and a mule allowed a man to be successful in the U.S.; obviously, this is not true anymore. Similarly with some of our values and institutions. Take a lesson from the Chinese - beginning their spectacular economic turnaround first required that they declare much of Mao, Marx, and Engels as being out of date. I'm going to go with Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Jeffrey Immelt on the need for greater government involvement - especially in encouraging high-technology, clean energy and industrial policy.

This is an outstanding summary, of a unique individual's view of how the U.S. has gotten to the sad state it's in today.

If there is one thing missing from the book that I could wish for, it would be an Index to help going back to locate his references to particular events, subjects, or situations. This book is an organized collection of various columns in various subject areas over time, and doesn't include such an index: that would be very helpful to locate sources for documentation and reinforcement.

Thomas Sowell has a very interesting background. Drafted into the Marine Corps during the Korean War, he then used the GI Bill to gain a college education, going on to a Ph.D. in Economics. He states that he started out a Marxist in outlook, but changed his mind from exposure 'in the real world'. How fortunate for us that he gained the perspective, and motivation, to write essays so insightful in so many areas.

One area where I take exception to his views is in regard to Israel, and perhaps Iran, and aspects of the Middle East. But he probably hasn't had prolonged exposure to the seamier side of Israel's elitist ruling establishment, and the effect of their lobby on U.S. policies. For all the good and outstanding observations he offers in other areas, I can forgive and overlook this one area.

This latest book of Dr. Sowell's is a collection of his essays from the last year or so. Those essays address American cultural issues in addition to national and international political ones. It is refreshing in these short pieces of his thinking, that he provides data as support for his assertions. His writing is direct and his arguments are logical. This book should serve to whet the reader's appetite for more detailed treatment of the ideas discussed. To that end, the reader will be greatly rewarded by examining Dr. Sowell's other books.

In the parts of the book that contain new material (e.g., the Preface, and introductions to essay groups), the author unmistakably conveys a belief in a most unpleasant outlook for the future of the United States-and the West in general. His study and experience of our world and its history (as glimpsed in these essays), over many decades, forces him to conclude that very dark times for civilization are likely approaching. Naturally, he continues to fight the good fight and hopes for the best. I pray that his hope is warranted.

Thomas Sowell is a very thoughtful man. He is concerned with many issues of the day: the attack on American Constitutional democracy; the dangerous decline of American public education and its conversion into an introduction mechanism by groups who are opposed to intellectual honesty in any form; the ruination of the public fisc by unions and special interests; and, in general, the decline of the great and grand American experiment.

Sowell brings to mind Eric Hoffer, the great populist philosopher, and his greatest work "The True Believer", an analysis of the dependent mind that fears individual responsibility and seeks comfort in mass movements where all think alike.

This book is largely a collection of previously published Sowell columns, peppered with few short introductory essays here and there. This is not a book written in the academic style. Sowell writes fluently, his prose free of academic pretension. Sowell pulls no punches in his concerns and orientation: "While the Obama administration in Washington is not the root cause of the ominous dangers that face this country, at home and abroad, it is the embodiment, the personification and the culmination of dangerous trends that began long ago". Sowell's own words summarize his overall point: "our concern is not with one man, but with as country, though history has shown repeatedly that one man in a key position at a crucial time can bring down a whole country in ruins".

It should be clear that Sowell does not hold the Obama administration in high regard - and, much to his credit, instead of foaming and frothing, explains why he opposes specific policies, why they represent dangers to the nation and why citizens must do their utmost to correct he grievous mistake of 2008.

Much like Hoffer, Sowell often uses aphorisms and other rhetorical devices to make his point. For example, he asks simply "[h]ow do you suppose the government can produce something for three dollars that private industry cannot produce for less than ten dollars? Greater efficiency in government? Give me a break".

Sowell breaks his book into sections: Government Policies, Political Issues, Economic Issues, Cultural Issues Legal Issues and, finally, Random Thoughts.

I'm a regular reader of Sowell's syndicated column and his occasional articles that appear elsewhere. He brings an intellectual's perspective to complex political and social issues and explains them in clear terms. If you haven't read Sowell before, this is an excellent introduction. If you're regular, this is a fun way to revisit columns you may have missed or forgotten about.

Sowell, in my opinion, is one our foremost public intellectuals and he should be listened to, even by those who hold opposing political opinions.

Jerry

"Dismantling of America" by Thomas Sowell is an astute compilation of Sowell's articles into one book, with a common theme composed of a few concepts. Sowell notes a term that should become known in the mainstream because it's short, concise, and spot-on: 'systematic denigration.'

The United States is in the process of dismantling. The dismantling is primarily, Economic. And this dismantling has been intentionally conducted in earnest since the end of WWII in 1945.

The reason are specific public policies that sent middle-class jobs overseas for decades. Now, Americans are feeling the impact of these policies. The US of today is composed primarily of low-paying service sector jobs without benefits, and over 70% of the American economy is propelled by Consumer Spending. This clearly is a diastrous economic model. Today, Wal-Mart is the largest employer in America. The Temp Agency "Man Power" is high on the list as well.

In the 1980s the intentional decline of America was accelerated under the mantra and banner of "Absolute Advantage" and "Comparative Advantage." These terms became the national credo, and in many ways still are - but these terms are not specifically used. American prosperity is buying cheap, low-quality goods at Wal-Mart.

Sowell notes (along with a plethora of others today) that the USA is declining and he makes comparisons to the Decline of the Roman Empire. It took the Roman Empire approximately three hundred to 400 years to decline. The United States if falling much faster, in this day-and-age of technology, communication, free trade, outsourcing, absolute advantage, and the rise of China and other nations, economically.

Today, a American university degree is as common as a driver's license, and because of the benefit-to-cost ratio the younger generations should seriously be asking, "Is it worth getting?"

On the topic of American Culture, I agree with Sowell that the US public and politicians are becoming culturally weak, and acquiesing to the intolerant demands of certain cultures. In particular, caving into Islam and it's intolerance, that this ideology is purposefully inundating onto America by design.

On the political and budget front, we see the recent rise of the Tea Party and talk of "cutting spending" by polticians and the public. This is only lip service: the only way to cut spending now is to raise the age of eligibility for Medicare and Social Security for people born after 1946 to about the age of about 74, based on actuarial statistics (life expectancy). Do you see this happening?

So the question is, "will this 'systematic denigration' continue?"

I think we know the answer. This is a highly recommended and informative book by Sowell and it's uniquely positive asset is the compilation of articles and focus on the last few decades, not just the last couple of years since the "Great Recession."

We Americans have messed up our bed, and we'll have to sleep in it.