A Conflict of Visions

A Conflict of Visions
Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

By Thomas Sowell

Review by Scott Bulmahn

"One of the curious things about political opinions is how often the same people line up on opposite sides of different issues. The issues themselves may have no intrinsic connection with each other… [Yet] the same familiar faces can be found glaring at each other from opposite sides of the political fence, again and again."

In A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, Sowell uses a refreshing but systematic approach to explain this phenomenon in terms of differences in underlying assumptions about human nature: whether human nature is inherently imperfect and hasn't essentially changed throughout history (the "constrained vision"), or whether human nature can be improved through education, programs, and spending (the "unconstrained vision," or essentially the vision of the Age of Reason).