There are writers and then there are philosophers

Thomas Sowell is both and extraordinarily so. It's a pleasure to read Sowell because one can always come away thinking "wow... I never thought of that in that context, now some more fog has been lifted from my brain cells....wow."    Yes, I admit, I am  one of  Dr.Sowell's unabashed groupies.

People who remember the old comic strip "Peanuts" will recall an often repeated situation where Lucy offers to hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick. Then, as Charlie coming running up to kick it, Lucy snatches away the ball and Charlie Brown loses his balance and goes crashing on his backside.

The reason this same scene remained funny, despite how often it was repeated, is that in the later repetitions Charlie Brown would express suspicion at Lucy, recalling how she had tricked him before. She would then come up with some claim that she wasn't going to do that any more-- and of course she did.....