A Conflict of Visions

Years ago, Thomas Sowell wrote a book titled "A Conflict of Visions." It's a difficult read, but perhaps one that is necessary in order to understand why there seems to be two heavily fortified lines of division regarding this issues of war, poverty, discrimination and criminal justice. Sowell defines a vision as the thing we see before we analyze, an map with little detail that we use to navigate through terrain we have never seen before. On one side of the conflict of visions is the "constrained vision," a vision that sees the moral, intellectual and physical limitations of human beings as essential facts to consider when developing public policy. On the other side of the conflict of visions is the "unconstrained vision," a vision that sees these human limitations as being temporary and a relatively insignificant factor in the development of public policy. While the unconstrained vision sees solutions to problems, the constrained vision sees only tradeoffs. The left's inability to understand the need to make decisions in the absence of ideal solutions is the reason why their opinions regarding important policy issues are so consistently misguided.