As John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail following a congressional vote for independence on July 2, 1776, “[This date] ought to be Solemnized with Pomp and Parade with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” The future father of the Alien and Sedition Acts was justifiably proud and excited.
“War is a continuation of politics by other means.” — Carl von Clausewitz, On War
Politics can continue by other means aside from direct kinetic war. Proxy wars and sanctions are just among the few tools that, if I must interject, have made conventional military might old-fashioned. Even if statecraft requires the monopolization of violence (for repression) to consolidate power, history itself is littered with cases where repressive regimes tried to hold onto power, only to violently collapse and/or be replaced with another repressive regime.
Thomas Sowell, the great economist, is not generally well regarded in some parts of the self-described “black community.” They call him an “Uncle Tom,” meaning a traitor to the black race. An anonymous commentator who shares daily quotes from Sowell on social media wrote on Facebook that he sees this “every single day. Multiple times a day.”
They never quote him back. They never cite a book. They never explain what he got wrong. They just say the words [Uncle Tom] and wait for applause.
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