Each pulls at our sense that we must do something, but one offers concrete solutions built on verified facts on the ground, while the other is theoretical; posing a quandary of which is most important. Now.
James P. Pinkerton: As different as black, green
By James P. Pinkerton -
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, October 19, 2007
The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal once observed that mankind is suspended between two infinities -- the infinitely large and the infinitely small. And so it is with two figures in the news: Al Gore wishes to speak for the planet, while Bill Cosby wishes to speak to the human heart.
And it's revealing, given the liberal biases of our culture, that one man receives so much attention and the other man, so little.
Gore, former vice president-turned-pundit-movie star, has chosen, as his topic, the infinitely big. And he has been rewarded hugely: He just won the Nobel Peace Prize, on top of many other awards showered down on him by the elite culture, including an Oscar and an Emmy. So Gore will ascend into the jetstream of world-renown -- the same left-tilting empyrean occupied by such globe-trotters as Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates.
In the meantime, closer to the ground, the comedian-turned-reformer Bill Cosby has joined with Alvin F. Poussaint of Harvard Medical School to write a book, "Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors," which argues that many of the problems within the black community are self-inflicted, the result of a counterproductive culture of violence and victimhood.
Cosby has been making this point for years -- and has been attacked by the left for years. Michael Eric Dyson, speaking for the liberal street-activism left over from the '60s, wrote an entire book attacking Cosby's "poisonous" view of black culture.
But Cosby and Poussaint have the cold terrible facts on their side: "In 1950, five out of every six black children were born into a two-parent home. Today that number is less than two out of six." Yes, white racism exists, but it was worse a half-century ago. Something bad is happening within black culture, and Cosby and Poussaint are not shy about naming it: the celebration of violence and ignorance emblemized in the "gangsta" lifestyle.
