"That Thomas Sowell?' You may be wondering. The Thomas Sowell I've previously castigated for being a relentless shill for American militarism in the Middle East and expansion of government power at home?
The very same. From the man himself:
Today, the confusion between freedom and democracy leads far too many Americans, including those in high places, to seek to spread democracy around the world- in complete disregard of the circumstances of the particular countries. In some respects, we may be more dangerous to our friends than to our enemies…
Both freedom and democracy have prerequisites. When those prerequisites do not exist, democracy especially can be a house of cards.
When was this ringing denunciation of the neoconservative project published? In 1999, on page 90 of Sowell's essay collection Barbarians Inside the Gates: And Other Controversial Essays. 
2 comments:
I fully agree. The Thomas Sowell who wrote BASIC ECONOMICS and THE VISION OF THE ANNOINTED and KNOWLEDGE AND DECISIONS seems no longer with us.
You're right about Thomas Sowell. He tries to distance himself from the Neocons and the "national greatness" conservatives, but his continual support of the president ultimately plays into their hands. He is useless as a writer in trying to re introduce some degree of sanity to our foreign policy. He's indistinguishable from the Neocons. I wrote about it here:
http://warandroses.blogspot.com/2007/09/tales-from-memory-hole-ii-sowell.html
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