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Wimps Versus Barbarians
May 21, 2013 | 21 comments
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Looking Back — And Forward
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Lies About Libya
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Bouncing Ball Politics
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Words That Replace Thought
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The Public Policy
The Moral Infrastructure
The Occupy movement does away with rule of law.
The “Occupy” movement, which the Obama administration and much of the media have embraced, has implications that reach far beyond the passing sensation it has created.
The unwillingness of authorities to put a stop to their organized disruptions of other people’s lives, their trespassing, vandalism and violence is a de facto suspension, if not repeal, of the 14th Amendment’s requirement that the government provide “equal protection of the laws” to all its citizens.
How did the “Occupy” movement acquire such immunity from the laws that the rest of us are expected to obey? Simply by shouting politically correct slogans and calling themselves representatives of the 99 percent against the 1 percent.
But just when did the 99 percent elect them as their representatives? If in fact 99 percent of the people in the country were like these “Occupy” mobs, we would not have a country. We would have anarchy.
Democracy does not mean mob rule. It means majority rule. If the “Occupy” movement, or any other mob, actually represents a majority, then they already have the votes to accomplish legally whatever they are trying to accomplish by illegal means.
Mob rule means imposing what the mob wants, regardless of what the majority of voters want. It is the antithesis of democracy.
In San Francisco, when the mob smashed the plate-glass window of a small business shop, the owner put up some plywood to replace the glass, and the mob wrote graffiti on his plywood. The consequences? None for the mob, but a citation for the shop owner for not removing the graffiti.
When trespassers blocking other people at the University of California, Davis refused to disperse, and locked their arms with one another to prevent the police from being able to physically remove them, the police finally resorted to pepper spray to break up this human logjam.
The result? The police have been strongly criticized for enforcing the law. Apparently pepper spray is unpleasant, and people who break the law are not supposed to have unpleasant things done to them. Which is to say, we need to take the “enforcement” out of “law enforcement.”
Everybody is not given these exemptions from paying the consequences of their own illegal acts. Only people who are currently in vogue with the elites of the left — in the media, in politics and in academia.
The 14th Amendment? What is the Constitution or the laws when it comes to ideological soul mates, especially young soul mates who remind the aging 1960s radicals of their youth?
Neither in this or any other issue can the Constitution protect us if we don’t protect the Constitution. When all is said and done, the Constitution is a document, a piece of paper.
If we don’t vote out of office, or impeach, those who violate the Constitution, or who refuse to enforce the law, the steady erosion of Constitutional protections will ultimately render it meaningless. Everything will just become a question of whose ox is gored and what is the political expediency of the moment.
There has been much concern, rightly expressed, about the rusting of bridges around the country, and the crumbling and corrosion of other parts of the physical infrastructure. But the crumbling of the moral infrastructure is no less deadly.
The police cannot maintain law and order, even if the political authorities do not tie their hands in advance or undermine them with second-guessing after the fact.
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Ground Control| 5.8.12 @ 1:10AM
Politicians have a long and storied history of self promotion at the expense of society. Caius Julius Casear fomented a war with Germanic tribes, killing hundreds of thousands, just so he could write home about his exploits. Caesar hired mobs to create mahem on the streets of Rome to destabilize the legitimate government of Pompey, then called them off when he returned, making him a hero to the city's masses. Caesar had his mobs drag off the Tribune of the Plebians to deny him his legal veto over Caesar's legislation. After Caesar was killed, there was a civil war to decide who would succeed him. Everything revolved around government and politicians. The City's underclass (Proles) were pacified by free food, free homes, and free entertainment, not to mention free public facilites. They knew who buttered their bread and consequently who to vote for in the annual elections.
The "Occupy" movement is just the latest iteration of government sponsored and/or tolerated mobs, immune from prosecution, immune from the norms of society. The serve a purpose for the leftist elites who crave power, as they disrupt normal society and "occupy" so to speak, the attention of people who might otherwise notice the corruption in Washington. As long as the "Occupy" people serve the purpose of Democrat politicians, they will be tolerated, even encouraged. (Remember, Nancy Pelosi "stands with" the occupiers.)
Human society is founded on the concept of shared values, without which, society is not possible, and human existence sinks into chaos and anarchy. Those of us who value society will defend it. Maybe we won't go downtown and throw the bums out, after all that's what we hire police to do. But if these boobs start moving in to people's neighborhoods and homes, it will be a different story. Civilization did not survive through timidity, and sloth like the "Occupy" movement have come and gone many times. They may win a skirmish here an there, but such people can only lose in the long run, since they are utterly incapable of social order, and therefore survival itself.
KyMouse| 5.8.12 @ 8:31AM
The rank-and-file Occupiers/anarchists -- the pawns -- who want to overthrow social norms and the rule of law seem to think that THEY will be in charge after the revolution. They don't realize that by advocating "might equals right," it's only a matter of time before someone mightier begins ruling over THEM.
The rights they want taken away from us are rights that someone higher up will take away from them.
Ground Control| 5.8.12 @ 8:46AM
Yes, and this is the way of history. Mobs help tyrants acquire power, but they never share in wielding that power. They are incapable of it. But you can't tell them that. They are frankly too dumb to understand. I have heard these people being interviewed in the news, and these are some of the dumbest stumps in America.
Von Mises Jr| 5.8.12 @ 10:33AM
Well stated Ground Control. Your conclusion is congruent with Gustav Le Bon's "The Psychology of Revolution."
Robespierre directed the Jacobin Club that inspired the Reign of Terror and there were battles for power among the revolutionaries. Eventually, Robespierre had his head loped off. There were a series of governments established before Napoleon rose to power to quell the violence. The French people had enough.
They re-formed a government and while property was not returned to the rightful owners, tranquility was restored. The popular misnomer that Napoleon was a tyrant is refuted by Le Bon. He ruled democratically to restore peace and was accepted as the dictator.
Of course France fell again in 1848 and 1870, and they apparently had something of a revolution on Sunday. But for the most part, they have had mostly law and order since 1799. They just never had unalienable rights as we enjoy. They always had a quest for equality then and now.
Alan Brooks| 5.8.12 @ 9:28PM
If blacks had listened to Sowells in the 19th century, they'd still be slaves.
Ground Control| 5.9.12 @ 2:09AM
This is the stupidest comment I have ever seen on these pages. You are a damned fool.
Alan Brooks| 5.9.12 @ 3:06AM
Sowell is a conservative- but he is also an opportunist who will go along to get along. Don't you think he will vote for Romney?:
Sowell is a Kept Boy.
Ground Control| 5.9.12 @ 10:59AM
This is absolutely false. You are an insulting, insufferable, boob.
So what if he votes for Romney? I intend to. Not because of anything Romney says or does particularly, but simply because he is not Bozo the Clown, our current "President." How does that make anyone "kept?" My goodness you're an idiot.
Riff Raff| 5.9.12 @ 1:49PM
He is also another racist liberal.
Canisius| 5.9.12 @ 4:44PM
Another racist white liberal who should be brutally beaten with pipes and bats..SMASH THE LEFT AND OWS
Dick Nome| 5.10.12 @ 9:42AM
Sucks to be you Alan, boy. Not only are you and insufferable pessimist, cynic and a boor, you are stupid. How does it feel getting up in the morning, looking in tthe mirror and hating yourself??
Karl | 5.8.12 @ 1:24AM
I've been going back and forth with some folks who are never going to forgive me for believing pepper-spraying the protesters at UC Davis was anything but a capital offense.
Lately, the same folks have been crowing over the Reynoso report, which seems to find fault with everybody, except possibly the protesters themselves. I'd be willing to give it a bit more weight if any of the contributors had been associated with law enforcement.
A. Fox| 5.8.12 @ 10:05AM
Where the hell have you been. Their are quite a few of us...don't you read or better yet "read between the lines"?
Bob S| 5.8.12 @ 2:52AM
Mr. Sewell, you have much more to worry about than the 14th Amendment from this administration. Fast & Furious, bypassing Congress to give aid to (finance) terrorist groups, openly attacking the Supreme Court, the list goes on.
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 6:25AM
Thank you.
We have a Criminal Enterprise being run out of this White House. 2,000 High Powered Automatic Weapons, "WALKED" over the Mexican Border, WITHOUT the knowledge of the Mexican Government. 2,00 High Powered Automatic Weapons, given to the most Bloodthirsty Animals in the Western Hemisphere - (The Mexican Drug Cartels) Well over 1,000 MURDERED Mexican Men, Women, and Children, all so that The Muslim could use their Dead Bodies as props, in the Left's Holy Grail of More Gun Control.
CBS has done the stories about the Emails they've seen. The people in the Administration who were involved in this Murderous, ILLEGAL Operation, were "OVERJOYED" at the way this Operation was working.
The Marxist POS even used a Press Conference with the Mexican President, to open his Lying Mouth and say that "A lot of these guns that are killing all these people, are being Bought in the United States, and then are Walked over the Border, only to end up in the hands of these Cartels."
I PRAY for this MFer to get what he DESERVES. By our Ballots, or in a Box. It don't matter to me. What he's done to all of those Mexican Families. All their BLOOD, on HIS HANDS. Everyday he's out there Dividing Us. Accusing Us. Threatening Us.
Frankly, I'm ASTONISHED, that it hasn't happened already.
oldfart| 5.8.12 @ 7:11AM
I am even more astonished that the Mexican Government has not requested an Interpol warrant for the arrest of the AG for International Weapons trafficking.
A. Fox| 5.8.12 @ 10:08AM
oldfart, don't forget to include the "little" o too!
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 11:37AM
Exactly!
How is it that they don't care about this Act of War, committed on them by the Gringo Yanquis, from the North?
The only answer is that, the Mexican Governemt, itself, is on the Drug Cartels' Payroll.
See how the World has CHANGED for the Worse, since the 1st Black Coke Head, Street Hustling, Community Organizing, Far Left Marxist Radical, has become President.
NEVER AGAIN!
Petronius| 5.8.12 @ 12:52PM
Excellent again. Awaiting your response to Cher on Drudge.
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 2:58PM
She's a washed up, used up, passed around, WHORE, like every other Obama Loving Liberal Woman.
I suggest we find a way to get Romney to stand next to her, for as long as it takes for her to Suffocate.
Petronius| 5.8.12 @ 3:09PM
Mitt can't get close enough to her. Best chance would be for Dennis Miller to have lunch at White Castle and cut one in her face. Just a scene I'd like to see.
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 3:54PM
Are those BEES on her head?
I couldn't tell.
Petronius| 5.8.12 @ 4:10PM
Or flies with no self respect...
Anthony| 5.8.12 @ 1:04PM
Keep the mantra going folks until it finally breaks out, despite being ignored by the whores in the lefty MSM; Obozo and Holder are accessories to the murder of two American agents.
They need to be placed under arrest, tried, and convicted. Then sent to GITMO to be water boarded 4 times a day.
POST American| 5.8.12 @ 3:32AM
---AHHHH yes! the Soros/ROT-child
organized, funded and directed
'opposition' ready to take on Wall Street!
-even as they 'mysteriously overlook'
such linked forces as the ILLEGAL USURY
'FED' --or the TAX FREE, usury feuled,
EUGENICS and DEMOCIDE formenting
'chair--IT--Abel' foundations.
YES ---YES --------YES!
And, we hear, OJ's 'on board' to help
root out the REAL perpetrators
--and terrorists as well!
------YES! YES! --Even Petrograd 1918
wasn't brimming with such promise!
---such truth and vitality!
-------YESSSSIRRREEE
BTW ----From 'Media Matters' to AS itself,
has anyone seen a SINGLE item examining,
or even mentioning, the ROT-child/Rockefeller
'legacy' of ---HELL--ping?
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 2:19PM
You're the Man, brother.
Keep truckin.
Big Fan.
Bobby Dias | 5.8.12 @ 5:41AM
I noticed that the Occupy movement did have their own laws- and ways of enforcement- a fist to the mouth for shutting people up and a blow with a weapon as punishment for saying the wrong thing. Not nice laws for not nice people who were basically thieves trying to take whatever they could.
A. Fox| 5.8.12 @ 10:10AM
That's why one should "carry" a weapon. When they punch I'll shoot!
Appleby| 5.8.12 @ 5:54AM
The next time your little angel throws herself to the ground in he grocery store and begins to scream because you refused to buy her a Wonka Bar, think of her as an Occupier in Training.
High toned language aside, that little brat screaming herself purple in the face, arms and legs flailing and sense of drama finely tuned, is where the Occupy Movement began. And the murmurind daddy and hand-wringing mommy hovering over her are the reason she grows up to think that's the way we get our way.
It's way too late to discipline your children when they are 16, 21 or 30 years old. Just saying.
Darin| 5.8.12 @ 6:31AM
When our kids were little, we told them we'd count to three and then they'd get paddled. At three, they got a light pat on the rump. We only had to do it a couple times. After that, we just had to say "one" and the misbehavior would stop. We were serious, we had proven ourselves serious, and such behavior would not be tolerated.
Now, we'd probably go to jail for doing this.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.8.12 @ 9:20AM
I used to tell my children if they misbehaved in a public place that everyone that they annoyed there would be given an opportunity to discipline them, as well. As a result, my children have always behaved so well while out that strangers regularly remark about it.
My methods in the household were not as effective in eliminating all misbehavior, but I have been made proud that I have not inflicted little menaces on the rest of the world, and have to this point helped develop people who are considerate of others.
Jim| 5.8.12 @ 3:09PM
Probably? I had a lame a$$ judge tell me i could not punish my child, becuase the mommy didn't like it. We are already there, my friend. And this is the woman who caused 2nd degree burns on my little son's hands and a 1/2 inch gash in his foot. But I need the parenting lessons.....
USSAlabama| 5.8.12 @ 11:05AM
So true and so shameful.
Here is a copy of comedian Adam Corolla going off on the occupiers rather accurately. WARNING: it is not edited for language (but listen, it's funny.)
http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....-monsters/
SUBVET| 5.8.12 @ 7:56PM
It has to be done by 5 yrs.old
aware| 5.8.12 @ 5:55AM
"The police are the last line of defense against barbarism..."
Except when the "police" are the barbarians, like this:
http://www.pixiq.com/article/s.....th-caution
oldfart| 5.8.12 @ 6:15AM
“In San Francisco, when the mob smashed the plate-glass window of a small business shop, the owner put up some plywood to replace the glass, and the mob wrote graffiti on his plywood. The consequences? None for the mob, but a citation for the shop owner for not removing the graffiti.”
I would expect nothing less from San Francisco.
It would seem that the goal is to crteate massive faux 'outrage' at the 'establishment'. At some point in time there will be the store owner, or someone just passing through who says 'enough is enough' and fights back. At this point the Predenter in Chief will have to send in Federal Units to restore order.
As the article has made mention – this has been done many times in history. However, this is only a limited reading. A closer examination reveals those are it far easier to Cry Havoc and unleash the hounds of war than put them back in their cages. And once released the hounds often turn on their former owners.
c. j. acworth| 5.8.12 @ 8:28AM
This is the kind of thing that makes people want to take matters into their own hands. Sooner or later some poor shopkeeper will defend his property "with extreme predjudice", and end up in jail for the rest of his life. All because the duly constituted authorities have abrogated their responsibilities.
Anthony| 5.8.12 @ 10:36AM
No wonder we haven't heard from vtwin, he took my advice and is hiding under a rock in the Nevada desert.
Petronius| 5.8.12 @ 12:54PM
Or he's busy tagging that plywood again.
Brian Mc| 5.8.12 @ 7:00AM
The crumbling of the moral infrastructure is no less deadly? I would venture it is far more deadly. Without it, there would be no physical corrosion and crumbling to speak of, and no need for your article, Mr. Sowell.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 5.8.12 @ 7:22AM
I'm glad I read this first.
Thanks for a beautiful and meaningful essay.
Shadow| 5.8.12 @ 7:52AM
Without rule of law there is no freedom for anyone.
OWS is the creation of liberals to intimidate America into submission. They are the brown shirts of today. The Obama administration is a bunch of lawless thugs and Congress does nothing to stop them. Much of Congress is too busy stuffing their own pockets and filling their nest eggs to stand up to the tyranny that is destroying our country. This isn't going to end well for anyone.
oldfart| 5.8.12 @ 8:00AM
The Brown Shirt reference is excellent. And what the OWS does not realize is that when these useful idiots have served their purpose they will be swept aside and replaced with Black Shirts who swear a personal oath to the Great Pretender.
JT| 5.8.12 @ 8:26AM
The useful idiots are the first ones to get the train ride to oblivion. Next come the so called Intellectuals, i.e. College Professors, known as the pure believers of the revolution and the creators of the useful idiot class.
Then the rivals for power are eliminated and the most ruthless and brutal one stands alone. Same thing all over again and the stupid and ignorant populace with their hands out plays their part to the hilt.
Ground Control| 5.8.12 @ 1:19PM
This is a good point. The historical Brown Shirts (Hitler's SA) who helped Hitler come to power were wiped out by the SS long before the death camps were set up. Once their "usefulness" is exhausted, the OWS boobs will not like what their benefactors have in store for them.
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 2:22PM
That is a GREAT POINT.
Think Cambodia, circa Pol Pou.
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 2:23PM
Disregard that last comment.
That was a GREAT POINT.
Think Cambodia, circa Pol Pot.
Damn this IPad, and my fat fingers.
SUBVET| 5.8.12 @ 8:01PM
TLP to many bake sales...............make the fingers swell.
Indy| 5.8.12 @ 8:25AM
The violence from OWS is likely to continue. The New Black Panthers speak of violence. Farrakhan has said some pretty scary things recently, no word from our President, Sharpton, Jackson, DHS, or anyone from the Left and of course the media? Why did DHS buy 450 million rounds of hollow-point ammo? Where is the media, this ammo is not for training, crickets...
Secret Service "visits" Ted Nugent but Farrakhan?
http://www.breitbart.com/Breit.....sassinated
Indy| 5.8.12 @ 8:27AM
curses...need coffee, I meant
Secret Service "visits" Ted Nugent but not Farrakhan?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.8.12 @ 9:23AM
It worked in your original form if you put the proper rising tone on "Farrakhan" as it was sub-vocalized.
Bobloblaw| 5.8.12 @ 8:31AM
No one should be surprise. The left is self indulgent and narcissistic . But its real sin, is its utopianism.
All leftist movements are utopian and they all fail . When that happens a few members turn to violence to achieve their aims.
Today we have OWS turning to violence and terrorism.
In the 1960s we had the weathermen and black panthers.
In the period 1915-1922, there was a Red reign of terror in the US some felt the progressive movement didnt go far enough.
The only difference between OWS and these past leftwing violent movements is OWS's ADD. It took 5 years for the left of the 1960s to turn to violence. It took OWS only 9 months.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.8.12 @ 9:34AM
It has been posited by some that the riots and terrorism by the Left was a response to the assassinations by the right. Among the problems with such an assertion is that most of the identified assassins are other members of the left. Malcolm X was killed by rivals in the Nation of Islam. Lee Harvey Oswald was an avowed communist. Sirhan Sirhan was a Palestinian activist. Only career criminal James Earl Ray had no publicly identified left wing ties.
oldfart| 5.8.12 @ 10:48AM
James Earl Ray was a useful idiot. I don't believe the source of funds was ever identified. My thoughts are the funds came from the left because Dr. King wanted people to actually believe AND do what he was talking about.
Anthony| 5.8.12 @ 10:48AM
Quite right Dr. Sowell. OWS is just another manifestation of the moral rot that leftism has inflicted upon our Constitutional Republic.
Leaders of our various governments have lost the moral and intellectual will and authority to enforce basis laws that insure civic stability, because of their own lack of moral and intellectual fiber.
This is what the disease of leftism does to a country. It breeds chaos, and chaos is the tap root to destruction.
Elizabeth Warren told the doers of our society that they didn't achieve success alone, the roads, bridges, and infrastructure of America aided in their success. What we see with OWS is the perverted paradigm of Ms. Warren's distorted view of America.
9thID| 5.8.12 @ 10:57AM
Mr. Sowell, Judeo-Christian morality is the foundational part of our society that Liberals, Libertarians, and RINOs ALL reject. Adams said our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people and that it is unsuitible to govern any others. Now, with the politicial choice coming down between moral relativists Obama and Romney, there is little hope for a change of course...
TLP| 5.8.12 @ 2:25PM
He's a National Treasure.
No doubt about it.
POST American| 5.9.12 @ 12:45AM
----------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------
The 'Occupy Movement' also, shouldn't
we point out, provides a nice verbal blur op. to
neutralize any observations on our
current ---all too REAL ----TSA/DHS-CFR
USURPATION and OCCUPATION of
America.
AGAIN, for the hard of thinking,
RUSSIAN TROOPS are in JOINT
exercises with American forces in
Colorado to 'take on American Terrorists'
RED China has opened its 'first of many'
'sovereignty zones' --some 50 sq. miles,
south of Boise.
------The Wall Street/ City of London directed
and funded Petrograd coup d'etat of 1918
moved via their groundbreaking
------ RED TERROR.
----------From Europe to Australia,
the Global USURY/NWO final
phase is using ---'IN THE RED'---TERROR!
NONE of them has EVER been brought
to justice ------EVER!!!!!
JohnInFlorida| 5.9.12 @ 7:58AM
Once upon a time, actions had consequences ... as the screw turns, perhaps consequences will once again attach themselves to the actions of those who believe themselves immune.