'Ne'er the Twain shall meet'

Thomas Sowell is a social essayist whose work I solemnly and avidly advocate for. His insights into America and the black-white polarisation which affects social, political and familial relationships are remarkable as well as perspicacious.
The following excerpt provides a powerful perspective into the post modern reductionism that is sweeping the globe; namely a dualism of worldviews which increasingly reduces most of politicised mankind into two diametrically opposed camps with seemingly no hope that the Twain shall meet.

US political commentator Thomas Sowell has written much on all this. In his incisive 1987 volume, A Conflict of Visions, he contrasts the constrained vision with the unconstrained. The former sees mankind as limited morally, intellectually and socially, and eschews the push for radical change, either in man or in society. The latter sees man and society as unbounded in potential, and seeks for radical change to bring in utopia now.

The former follows the Judeo-Christian view of the fallenness of man, and the impossibility of changing human nature and society without outside help. The latter sees human nature and society being capable of being moulded into a new man and a perfect society. Says Sowell:

“The great evils of the world – war, poverty, and crime, for example – are seen in completely different terms by those with the constrained and the unconstrained visions. If human options are not inherently constrained, then the presence of such repugnant and disastrous phenomenon virtually cries out for explanations – and for solutions. But if the limitations and passions of man himself are at the heart of these painful phenomena, then what requires explanation are the ways in which they have been avoided or minimized. While believers in the unconstrained vision seek the special causes of war, poverty and crime, believers in the constrained vision seek the special causes of peace, wealth, or a law-abiding society.”

The differing outcomes of these philosophies are becoming increasingly apparent. Detroit is a city which reflects emphatically on the one; let us hope and pray Austrlia does not suffer the same fate.
The full transcript is available @ http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/07/on-revolution-and-competing-worldviews/