Friday, March 15, 2013

Literacy

Thomas Sowell has been churning out columns on race at Townhall:
Roman conquests had historic repercussions for centuries after the Roman Empire had fallen. Among the legacies of Roman civilization were Roman letters, which produced written versions of Western European languages, centuries before Eastern European languages became literate. This was one of many reasons why Western Europe became more advanced than Eastern Europe, economically, educationally and technologically.

Meanwhile, the achievements in other civilizations -- whether in China or in the Middle East -- surged ahead of achievements in the West, though China and the Middle East later lost their leads.
This is an eccentric way to put things. Here's the gist:
There are too many zig-zags in history to believe that some single over-riding factor explains all, or even most, of what happened, either then or now. But what seldom, if ever, happened were equal achievements by different peoples at the same time.

Yet today we have bean counters in Washington turning out statistics that are solemnly presented in courts of law to claim that, if the numbers are not more or less the same for everybody, that proves that somebody did somebody else wrong.
Oppression is NORMAL, why fight it? The end.

6 comments:

mikey said...

Entirely predictable. Basic movement conservative logic flows backwards.

Start with a premise, and bend every historical event and data point to prove that premise correct.

Not the scientific method - let's call it the bloviation method...

Smut Clyde said...

Someone stole my beans!!

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

Roman conquests had historic repercussions for centuries after the Roman Empire had fallen. Among the legacies of Roman civilization were Roman letters, which produced written versions of Western European languages, centuries before Eastern European languages became literate. This was one of many reasons why Western Europe became more advanced than Eastern Europe, economically, educationally and technologically.

Yes, Western Europe became more advanced than Eastern Europe because the Roman Empire never penetrated into Eastern Europe. Imagine, if you will, that there were an Eastern European nation was characterized by a Romance language and a "Latinate" heritage. If such a nation were to exist, one would imagine that it would be more advanced than its neighbors.

Also, too, "Glory of Greece" my ass.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Al Gebra casts a spell on you.
~

tigris said...

Start with a premise, and bend every historical event and data point to prove that premise correct.

A false premise, even, as not even Washington bean counters expect "equal achievement" from everybody all at the same time.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

conservatives going on about race. Oh, THAT always turns out well.

But why not? It's not like they can lose MORE of the African-American vote, although they have a little way to fall for the Hispanic vote yet.