A number of posts say that the Right is anti-education, that those on the Right are dumb, and their postitions are based on ignorance...
One of our board-buds, when asked why so many Americans disagree with his Left-wing position, "Simple answer: Because those individuals are just not smart people."
And, from another "Now intelligence is a negative in the minds of conservatives. "
And, another: "Bolton is waving the old con flag, "Ignorance is good".
OK, simply boilerplate sophomoric argument from the Left....or is it?
I contend that the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution, with it's stated attempt to replace 'superstition and religion' with the rule of 'reason' has actually given many folks the idea tha the amorphous term 'education' is a priori, worthy of approval.
And, therefore, the oppoite is opprobrium.
Here is a lesson from history that may mitigate their view...
1. More details are emerging about Humam al-Balawi, the man who blew up seven intelligence agents in Afghanistan. By education and professional status, the Jordanian doctor is typical of recent suicidal attackers. The man accused of trying to blow up a plane on Christmas Day is a Nigerian graduate of the University of London. In the Fort Hood shootings, a Palestinian-American psychiatrist in the U.S. Army has been charged.
Humam al-Balawi was said to be carrying information about Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two, himself a surgeon who was born to a prominent Egyptian family.
Mohamed Atta of 9/11, who was an Egyptian urban planner who had been working in Germany - these are not the wretched of the earth. What essentially is the grievance that draws them to al-Qaida?
Groups Recruiting Well-Educated Terrorists : NPR
2. A recent study at Princeton University by Alan Krueger and Jitka Maleckova, called "Education, Poverty, Political Violence and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?" argues this point. One piece of the Krueger-Maleckova evidence involves 129 members of Hezbollah who died in action, mostly against Israel, from 1982 to 1994. Hezbollah is now designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Biographical information from the Hezbollah newspaper al-Ahd indicates that the fighters who died were, on average, more educated and less impoverished than the Lebanese population of comparable age and regional origin .Moreover, the Palestinians' adherence to the view that the mass murder of civilians was not terrorism was independent of education and higher among those working than unemployed. Hence, support for terrorism was not reduced by increases in education and income .a study by Charles Russell and Bowman Miller (reprinted in the 1983 book Perspectives on Terrorism) considered 18 revolutionary groups, including the Japanese Red Army, Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang, and Italy's Red Brigades. The authors found that "the vast majority of those individuals involved in terrorist activities as cadres or leaders is quite well-educated. In fact, approximately two-thirds of those identified terrorists are persons with some university training, [and] well over two-thirds of these individuals came from the middle or upper classes in their respective nations or areas." BW Online | June 10, 2002 | The Myth That Poverty Breeds Terrorism
http://www.krueger.princeton.edu/terrorism2.pdf
3. men who belonged to violent Islamist groups active over the past few decades (some in jail, some not). Had those groups reflected the working-age populations of their countries, engineers would have made up about 3.5 percent of the membership. Instead, nearly 20 percent of the militants had engineering degrees. When Gambetta and Hertog looked at only the militants whose education was known for certain to have gone beyond high school, close to half (44 percent) had trained in engineering.
Today's Highly Educated Terrorists | The National Interest Blog
4. Pol Pot, was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge[3] and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 19761979. Pol Pot's leadership, in which he attempted to "cleanse" the country, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.72.5 million people . he qualified for a scholarship that allowed for technical study in France. He studied radio electronics at the EFR in Paris from 1949 to 1953 Pol Pot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
5. Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan, who had studied in Paris, wrote in his doctoral dissertation that the Cambodian economy and social structure would be renewed by tapping the dormant energy of the peasant mass against the cities. Kissinger, The White House Years, p. 518.
6. Ernesto "Che" Guevara "the man was a mass killer. Hundreds were reportedly executed on his watch" Why Do people love a mass murder like Che? // Current
As a young boy growing up, he had a passion for education, literature and philosophy. Mao Zedong
"he worked as a doctor. Che Guevara : Biography
7. Lenin was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, April 22, 1870 .In 1891 he passed the law examinations at the University of St. Petersburg as an external student, scoring first in his class. He practiced law briefly in Samara before devoting himself to the revolutionary movement. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), 1870-1924
8. Bashar al-Assad is the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party, and the son of former President Hafez al-Assad. Al-Assad is a controversial figure both in Syria and Internationally for his disregard for human rights, economic lapses, sponsorship of terrorism, and corruption. Bashar studied ophthalmology at Damascus University 1988 and arrived in London in 1992 to continue his studies. Bashar al-Assad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Highly educated Leftists, smart guys all....
So, I'm wondering if our friends on the Left would like to claim any of these highly educated folks as their heros?
You know, unlike the "amiable dunce, Ronald Reagan"...the guy who won the Cold War.
Could be the Left is wrong about what constitutes 'smart,' huh?
One of our board-buds, when asked why so many Americans disagree with his Left-wing position, "Simple answer: Because those individuals are just not smart people."
And, from another "Now intelligence is a negative in the minds of conservatives. "
And, another: "Bolton is waving the old con flag, "Ignorance is good".
OK, simply boilerplate sophomoric argument from the Left....or is it?
I contend that the Enlightenment, and the French Revolution, with it's stated attempt to replace 'superstition and religion' with the rule of 'reason' has actually given many folks the idea tha the amorphous term 'education' is a priori, worthy of approval.
And, therefore, the oppoite is opprobrium.
Here is a lesson from history that may mitigate their view...
1. More details are emerging about Humam al-Balawi, the man who blew up seven intelligence agents in Afghanistan. By education and professional status, the Jordanian doctor is typical of recent suicidal attackers. The man accused of trying to blow up a plane on Christmas Day is a Nigerian graduate of the University of London. In the Fort Hood shootings, a Palestinian-American psychiatrist in the U.S. Army has been charged.
Humam al-Balawi was said to be carrying information about Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two, himself a surgeon who was born to a prominent Egyptian family.
Mohamed Atta of 9/11, who was an Egyptian urban planner who had been working in Germany - these are not the wretched of the earth. What essentially is the grievance that draws them to al-Qaida?
Groups Recruiting Well-Educated Terrorists : NPR
2. A recent study at Princeton University by Alan Krueger and Jitka Maleckova, called "Education, Poverty, Political Violence and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?" argues this point. One piece of the Krueger-Maleckova evidence involves 129 members of Hezbollah who died in action, mostly against Israel, from 1982 to 1994. Hezbollah is now designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. Biographical information from the Hezbollah newspaper al-Ahd indicates that the fighters who died were, on average, more educated and less impoverished than the Lebanese population of comparable age and regional origin .Moreover, the Palestinians' adherence to the view that the mass murder of civilians was not terrorism was independent of education and higher among those working than unemployed. Hence, support for terrorism was not reduced by increases in education and income .a study by Charles Russell and Bowman Miller (reprinted in the 1983 book Perspectives on Terrorism) considered 18 revolutionary groups, including the Japanese Red Army, Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang, and Italy's Red Brigades. The authors found that "the vast majority of those individuals involved in terrorist activities as cadres or leaders is quite well-educated. In fact, approximately two-thirds of those identified terrorists are persons with some university training, [and] well over two-thirds of these individuals came from the middle or upper classes in their respective nations or areas." BW Online | June 10, 2002 | The Myth That Poverty Breeds Terrorism
http://www.krueger.princeton.edu/terrorism2.pdf
3. men who belonged to violent Islamist groups active over the past few decades (some in jail, some not). Had those groups reflected the working-age populations of their countries, engineers would have made up about 3.5 percent of the membership. Instead, nearly 20 percent of the militants had engineering degrees. When Gambetta and Hertog looked at only the militants whose education was known for certain to have gone beyond high school, close to half (44 percent) had trained in engineering.
Today's Highly Educated Terrorists | The National Interest Blog
4. Pol Pot, was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge[3] and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 19761979. Pol Pot's leadership, in which he attempted to "cleanse" the country, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.72.5 million people . he qualified for a scholarship that allowed for technical study in France. He studied radio electronics at the EFR in Paris from 1949 to 1953 Pol Pot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
5. Khmer Rouge leader Khieu Samphan, who had studied in Paris, wrote in his doctoral dissertation that the Cambodian economy and social structure would be renewed by tapping the dormant energy of the peasant mass against the cities. Kissinger, The White House Years, p. 518.
6. Ernesto "Che" Guevara "the man was a mass killer. Hundreds were reportedly executed on his watch" Why Do people love a mass murder like Che? // Current
As a young boy growing up, he had a passion for education, literature and philosophy. Mao Zedong
"he worked as a doctor. Che Guevara : Biography
7. Lenin was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, April 22, 1870 .In 1891 he passed the law examinations at the University of St. Petersburg as an external student, scoring first in his class. He practiced law briefly in Samara before devoting himself to the revolutionary movement. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), 1870-1924
8. Bashar al-Assad is the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party, and the son of former President Hafez al-Assad. Al-Assad is a controversial figure both in Syria and Internationally for his disregard for human rights, economic lapses, sponsorship of terrorism, and corruption. Bashar studied ophthalmology at Damascus University 1988 and arrived in London in 1992 to continue his studies. Bashar al-Assad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Highly educated Leftists, smart guys all....
So, I'm wondering if our friends on the Left would like to claim any of these highly educated folks as their heros?
You know, unlike the "amiable dunce, Ronald Reagan"...the guy who won the Cold War.
Could be the Left is wrong about what constitutes 'smart,' huh?
