According to sociologists at Oxford, it turns out that engineers are over-represented in Islamic Jihad, even outpacing squirrels, apparently. When the perpetrators of outrages are identified, it turns out that about 40% of successful terrrorists who hold a college degree happen to be engineers. I guess I should be shocked and outraged, but in reality, I'm not surprised.
Why?
Well, the historic roots of the practice of engineering lie in the creation and operation of engines of war--hence the "Military Science" degrees historically conferred at West Point. Terrorists are known for creating and deploying unconventional engines of war. Thus, to find a high proportion of engineers among people who make things that go BOOM is about as surprising as finding drunks at a bar.
Leave it to sociologists to downplay the obvious reason for a phenomenon in order to try to score political points.
(reason # 534, 233, 785 why you need to teach your children logic--so they won't grow up to be sociologists at Oxford!)
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3 comments:
The beard is a dead giveaway!
I wasn't able to wade through the study, so I don't know what Oxford's proposed reasoning was, but ISTM that it also has to do with the fact that those within the Arab world who actually manage to get themselves a decent secondary education, have a cakewalk getting into American schools of engineering, get exposed to those evils of American society which are also recognized as evils within conservative Islam, and return home only to find out that there's little to do with their American degrees (due to the supply/demand disparity in opportunity in technical areas in those countries) except chew on their resentment of a decadent society that so graciously gave them an unmarketable degree. Am I all wet on this one?
That thought comes to my mind, too, Jane, but reality is that Jim's probably right; it's all about the beards.
(my six year old persuaded me to grow one this winter)
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