The Quest for Cosmic Justice

Rating:
Summary: Play Fairly versus Win Regardless
Review: "You can't change the rules in the middle of the game." "Hey, you just made that rule up." "You're cheating!" Kids on a playground arguing? No, adults in our judicial and political systems. In the first section of The Quest for Cosmic Justice, Thomas Sowell takes us on a tour of the world through time to display examples of childlike behavior in adults. He discusses two types of justice. Traditional justice is process-based: make up the rules before the game, everybody plays by the same rules, and the end result is left open. Cosmic justice is ends-oriented: have rules, but fiddle with them so that the game ends as someone wants it to.

In the second section of the book, Dr. Sowell examines equality, a much bandied-about word, but slippery in the extreme as to what it means. If we have learned anything from science it is that defining terms is crucial to progress - unless one is pursuing cosmic justice, of course. He talks of ". . . politically imposed equality . . . poisonous relations between the races and sexes . . . internal dissensions and demoralization have played a crucial role in the decline and fall of other civilizations, and there is no reason to expect this one to be immune."

Visions, their necessity for humans to operate and the things that can go wrong with them, are treated in the third section. The final section concerns the quiet repeal of the American Revolution. Comparisons of the French Revolution to the American Revolution were very informative, at least to me. I remembered an awful lot of heads got chopped off in France, but hadn't made the connection between that and the philosophy underlying the French Revolution. "At the national level as well, the 'Committee of Public Safety' under Robespierre ruled by decrees that could over-ride any laws."

Now, let's see . . . are Executive Orders when Congress doesn't do what the President wants equivalent to Robespierre's decrees that led to the guillotine?

Rating:
Summary: Social Justice 101 - A Conservative Viewpoint
Review: Economist Thomas Sowell's *Quest for Cosmic Justice* is a must-read for anyone (liberal or conservative) who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the basic assumptions of the modern liberal social-progressive movement. Sowell's clear, concise argument casts grave doubt on the possibility of successfully moving past our current model of justice, under which 'justice' is defined in terms of fair process, to a postmodern model of justice under which 'justice' is defined in terms of guaranteed outcome.

The "quest for cosmic justice," according to Sowell, is the unachievable desire to redefine human beings in such a way as to nullify virtually all natural advantages such as talent and intelligence (which are viewed as unjust inequalities), resulting in the complete and universal (albeit unnatural) "equalization" of persons.

The political implications of Sowell's argument are deep; he means to undermine the notion that a postmodernist re-definition of the term 'justice' could lead to a desirable re-organization of our current social, political and economic structures.

Thomas Sowell a syndicated black conservative columnist and is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Rating:
Summary: Genius
Review: I really cannot think of any other words to describe this book, other than pure genius. Not only is this book dead on right, the way it is written is wonderful. This book flows with fluid motion and can be read in a matter of hours. Then you want to read it again to see what you missed.

Sowell simply takes the left wing agenda and lets it stand. This lets the reader simply see the glaring contradictions within the left. Furthermore, he does so in a way that allows anybody to read and comprehend what he has written, yet backs up the statements with enough logic and stats to allow them to stand as fact.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent examination of the liberal mindset.
Review: In "The Quest for Cosmic Justice," Thomas Sowell expounds on his analysis in "The Vision of the Anointed" of the left-leaning ideological vision behind many legal and policy decisions made over the years. Sowell distinguishes "traditional justice" - based on established rules, laws and procedures - from "cosmic justice," which seeks to impose left-leaning "solutions" on society. The cosmic view of justice, as Sowell points out, is devoid of logic, abhorrent of emperical evidence and facts, and yet despite this those who espouse this view try to impose it on the rest of society, no matter what (or how dire) the consequences.

Dr. Sowell's erudition, attention to bare-bones analysis, common sense, and the truth make him one of America's most respected scholars. I feel that I am a more enlightened and intelligent citizen because of this and other Sowell publications.

Rating:
Summary: Principle argument fails miserably.
Review: This book is meant as an antidote to John Rawls' Yheory of Justice. Despite being a thoroughgoing libertarian, I think Sowell's argument completely fails.

Sowell does not try to argue Rawls' point that people do not "deserve" whatever they may reap from their natural abilities.

Sowell argues by saying that, even if this is true, its irrelavant to actual policy because its impossible for mere humans to calculate how much any individual truly deserves.

I can't help but think that this doesn't even begin to put a dent in Rawls' argument.

According to Rawls, absolutely no attribute of an individual can be imputed to moral desert. Hence, in the Rawlsian paradigm, it is easy to find out how much someone deserves. Rawlsians can know, a priori, that every human deserves NOTHING!

Of course, contra Rawls, it doesn't follow from people deserving nothing that everyone deserves an equal share of the undeserved stock of human produce, but Sowell doesn't attempt to argue this point.

Sowell's discusiion of World War two is unbelievably flawed.

Another problem with Sowell's entire "Visions" trilogy is that it generalizes far too mcuh. However, you can always find interesting and useful facts, especially on race and ethnicity, when reading sowell.

Rating:
Summary: Expsoing the Liberal Left's Warped Vision
Review: Thomas Sowell brilliantly exposes the die-hard previaling liberal egotism that retries the same old tired arguments in regards to equality, war, and other subjects of social interests. Thee are four chapters and within 200 pages, Sowell does what most authors do not - scholarly, yet succintly, refute the positions of liberal social groups bent on placing their vision on American society and eslewhere.

In the chapters, "The Quest for Cosmic Justice" and "The Mirage of Equality" he analyzes the liberal quests to redistrubute laws, income, etc to bring about a social policy that aids the so-called less prosper by violating the liberties of the wealthy. In fact, he demonstrates the fallacy of such notions and policies as well as their utter failures.

His third chapter, "The Tyranny of Vision" is in my view his best section of the book and warrants five stars in and of itself. He uses many of the pre-WW II pacifists arguments and shows where they failed then and contniue to fail now. He exposes the egoists claims for peace by liberals and how they often lead to more damage as evil enemies will use the weakness of pacifists to inflict more harm on the internal commuinity (not to mention their own people).

The last chapter is written well also, where he succesfully discusses the rule of law as it is superior than the search for cosmic justice as determined by a few. This book is a must read as it will help conservatiives better articulate the values they hold on to, the moderates understand the truth of of the left's extremem and illogical positions, and if a liberal reads this book, hopefully they'll comprehend why their quest is misguided and one could even argue - evil.

Rating:
Summary: An eloquent jurist rebuts the status quo
Review: Thomas Sowell makes understanding the status quo play more like checkers than a game of chess. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is a book about the problems society faces and the outcomes that are created to address them. Sowell tackles some specific issues such as justice, equality, property rights, racism and other concerns.

Two of the major sticking points to me were the comparisons of approaches to peace between nations and the issues of equality after the civil rights movement of the early 60s. On the peace isse Sowell looks at the approach to peace that the "anti-war" point of view takes and contrasts that with the alternative approach to peace through superior weaponry as a deterrent against foreign enemies. On equality he weighs the calls for equality as an outcome and equality as a starting point.

I found this book to be very pleasing to the present political discourse as new Supreme Court decisions on Affirmative Action and US intervention of foreign nations as part of the War on Terrorism. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a critical view of "social justice" and how it fails to consider the negative impacts on society when its supporters are attemtping to remedy what they perceive as a present injustice.

Rating:
Summary: An eloquent jurist rebuts the status quo
Review: Thomas Sowell makes understanding the status quo play more like checkers than a game of chess. The Quest for Cosmic Justice is a book about the problems society faces and the outcomes that are created to address them. Sowell tackles some specific issues such as justice, equality, property rights, racism and other concerns.

Two of the major sticking points to me were the comparisons of approaches to peace between nations and the issues of equality after the civil rights movement of the early 60s. On the peace isse Sowell looks at the approach to peace that the "anti-war" point of view takes and contrasts that with the alternative approach to peace through superior weaponry as a deterrent against foreign enemies. On equality he weighs the calls for equality as an outcome and equality as a starting point.

I found this book to be very pleasing to the present political discourse as new Supreme Court decisions on Affirmative Action and US intervention of foreign nations as part of the War on Terrorism. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a critical view of "social justice" and how it fails to consider the negative impacts on society when its supporters are attemtping to remedy what they perceive as a present injustice.

Rating:
Summary: Chastising the Self-Anointed....
Review: Thomas Sowell may be one of the most despised black men in America-despised by extremist liberals, black and white, because Sowell has devoted his abilities to exposing their destructive ideologies of social redemption as counterproductive to the best interests of all Americans. Widely known for his provocative, nationally syndicated newspaper articles and other books, he focuses, in The Quest for Cosmic Justice, on the misguided thinking behind the modern impulse to reform the very nature of the human condition from individual responsibility, competition, and performance to the tragic consequences of affirmative action and universal egalitarian equality. Sowell locates the source of much of the problem in the academy, law schools, and government where "new elites" are quietly repealing the American Revolution.

The "morally self-anointed," as he calls excessively liberal reformers and radicals, "have for centuries argued as if no honest disagreement were possible, as if those who opposed them were not merely in error but in sin.... Given this exalted vision of their role by the anointed visionaries, those who disagree with them must be correspondingly degraded or demonized." Marx, Lenin, Hitler, and Mao all followed this procedure, as have utopians of similar or less horrible results.... That comparable dynamics rule the day, especially in the humanities in many American universities, will not surprise those who have any real experience of those departments. Sowell evokes the American political system and tradition in the hope of preventing its further erosion.

One of the many perceptive and striking points Sowell makes in the book involves "The High Cost of Envy." Pointing out its dangers broadly to poor people, he writes,

"The very terms of the discussion encourage them to attribute their less fortunate position to social barriers, if not political plots, and so to neglect the kinds of efforts and skills which are capable of lifting them to higher economic and social levels."

The acquisition of such "skills, education, discipline, foresight," needed to improve their lot, becomes less likely, as the "ideology of envy" blames others for exploitation and racism, undermining their own will to act, while rendering "more successful members suspect as traitors." Sowell observes this same "bogus explanation" can keep entire societies in poverty, making me think of my recent experience as an accredited participant at the United Nations Millennium Forum, May 22-26, 2000, where I witnessed Kofi Annan's wise proposal for a Global Compact with business swept aside and essentially replaced with the "sophisticated modern versions of the envy vision spread by the Third World intelligentsia, often seconded by the intelligentsia in more fortunate countries."

Summing up in a passage that has very wide application, Sowell states, "cosmic justice attempts to create equal results or equal prospects, with little or no regard for whether the individuals or groups involved are in equal circumstances or have equal capabilities or equal personal drives. To do this, it cannot operate under general rules, the essence of law, but must create categories of people entitled to various outcomes, regardless of their own inputs . . . assuming with little or no evidence that only malign intentions or systemic bias could explain unequal results. 'Affirmative action' is perhaps the classic example of this approach but it is only one example." His insight into the subtleties of modern ideologies is truly remarkable, as is his own high and demanding sense of justice.

Alas, I seriously found myself wondering at times if Sowell's Quest for Cosmic Justice is not a voice in the wilderness, as always one come much too late. But I take heart in knowing such people as he, Shelby Steele, and Ward Connerly have the courage to speak out on race and other matters and in the end hope that events will unfold for the good in ways I can not imagine and that now seem so often unlikely. In this context, I recommend reading Robert Conquest's Reflections on a Ravaged Century, a parallel meditation on the dilemmas of modernity.

Rating:
Summary: Riviting, Eloquent, Logical
Review: Thomas Sowell writes four interrelated chapters describing the insidious erosion of Constitutionally protected freedoms due to legislative and judicial decisions which are based on momentary emotional impulse rather than well thought out, measured and tested ideas. Sowell demonstrates clearly how our current society has abdicated its responsibility to the U.S. Constitution and rather than adhering to its fundamentals and rubrics, which often requires emotional fortitude, this society frequently chooses the intellectually and emotionally lazy course.

I believe that this book well develops the process by which moral relativism and feel-good governmental sanctioned intrusion has enabled the masses to take the easy road of "cosmic justice" and makes it ever more difficult for hard working honest people to continue to have honesty, logic and ethics as their guiding principles. I highly reccommend this book to anyone who is struggling with an emotional bias towards government subsidies for the "needy" yet intellectually knows that this is wrong.