Vision Of The Anointed example essay topic

783 words
The Vision of The Anointed When we think what the definition of Vision is we might think that vision is the ability to see the features of objects we look at, such as color, shape, size, details, depth, and contrast, and that vision is achieved when the eyes and brain work together to form pictures of the world around us. But when reading Thomas Sowell's book, The Vision of The Anointed, one might have a different perspective. Thomas Sowell wrote this book to contest the vision of those who are the artistic activist of modern society. In chapter two that is titled, The Pattern, Sowell what is interesting about visions, what are their assumptions and their reasoning. He then discusses the various characteristics of patterns that have evolved among the anointed.

The pattern of failure is then listed into four stages: The "Crisis", the "Solution", the "Results", and finally the "Response". During the chapter he talks about certain topics, such as the war on poverty and sex education, and broke each one down with the four stages. I had a particular interest on the topic of sex education. I agreed with Sowell about the "Crisis" with the sex education within schools. He mentioned hoe pregnancy and disease was done in the 60's than it had been in the fifties. Usually when society makes a fuss, it could do the opposite affect than help the situation.

It seems when sex education was permitted into schools, which more sex started to happen. Although that may have not been the intent, but unfortunately it did not help the problem, that was never a real problem. In chapter three which is titled by the numbers, Sowell discusses scientific evidence through data. He enlightens us on how to take facts and create them into valid theories. One fascinating subtopic was the "AHA" Statistics, where he describes how people find some numbers that fit their insights.

In this chapter he focuses on how people get paid differently according to race, and gender. I do find this to be true. I agree that somewhere statistics by the anointed has proven that those tiny details (race and gender) have an affect on the way someone is paid doing the same work. I agree that facts and numbers are not entirely correct, but they are shaped and formed to me the anointed needs, and desires. In chapter four he discusses the irrelevance of evidence. He describes how factual evidence and logical arguments are frequently not just lacking but ignoring many topics by those with the vision of the anointed.

This chapter held my attention when he spoke about the legacy of slavery. I had always believed that slavery was not the cause of the breakdown of the black family. It's just another excuse that someone can put blame on instead of taking responsibility for his or her own actions. It was very stunning to find that it was a slight higher percentage of black married than whites during slavery times. I think that might be because the slaves had a reason to stick together and be as a unit, whereas the whites had no threats against them, and marriage might have not been that dramatic. In chapter five where he talks about the anointed versus the benighted, he speaks about the contrast of opposing visions.

He goes on to confer that their systematic differences within the underlying vision. They are as follows: human capability, social possibilities, social causation, freedom, justice, knowledge, specialization, motivation, process costs, decision-making mechanism preferred, and kind of decisions preferred. Thus, he divides them into the tragic vision, and the vision of the anointed. He said that the separateness of the two visions fall on human limitations. I do agree that there are conflicts between the two visions, because one can never be satisfied with the results of the outcomes. When he talks about differential knowledge and wisdom, he shows us the important questions about rewarding merit, and differences.

In conclusion I agree with all of Sowell's points, he brings a new light to the minds of the clueless. When you thinks of society in a complex way like the anointed you tend to view things differently, and sometimes abstractly. Understanding the anointed is a key to understanding the or vision even though you may not agree with them. Sowell is an excellent job when he wrote this book, anyone can read this book and view life in a whole new light.