Tunisian here. My country is sadly known as the first exporter of ISIS fighters. I couldn't agree more with this! It is mostly attributed to the educational system. Engineering studies are focused mostly on math and physics and albeit present, Languages are treated like scond-class subjects. You end up with a generation of students who are effective engineers (to an extent) but who can't think at all. They are not taught philosophy, arts and even the logic of mathematics is obscured by the nature of testing.
Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
21–30 of 84 posts
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#22This was completely predicted by Peter Thiel in Zero to One. There's a common set of personality traits, a little related to Asperger's, where one works from first principles, is less influenced by what other people think, has less groupthink, and is more comfortable being outside of social norms. This is a trait shared by entrepreneurs, engineers, and extremists. There's a high overlap between the three. Social norm…
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Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#23The left has managed to grasp control of academia, and shut other groups out[1]. I imagine the pattern will be reversed in countries where social studies means quran interpretation. [1] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/1/liberal-major...
Like a conspiracy?
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#24The left has managed to grasp control of academia, and shut other groups out[1]. I imagine the pattern will be reversed in countries where social studies means quran interpretation. [1] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/1/liberal-major...
Haven't you got the causation wrong? Isn't it the more educated people become the more left leaning they are? It's not the left captured academia, it's academia created the left.
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#25This was completely predicted by Peter Thiel in Zero to One. There's a common set of personality traits, a little related to Asperger's, where one works from first principles, is less influenced by what other people think, has less groupthink, and is more comfortable being outside of social norms. This is a trait shared by entrepreneurs, engineers, and extremists. There's a high overlap between the three. Social norm…
"This is a trait shared by entrepreneurs, engineers, and extremists. There's a high overlap between the three."
Are management-level terrorists coming from former entrepreneurs? None of the top people in al-Queda were engineers. Bin Laden did come from a family that runs a huge construction company, but he himself never did anything in that area. Within ISIS, many of the top people were either career military or religious. Shaker Wahib al-Fahdawi al-Dulaimi was a computer science student, though.
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#26Tunisian here. My country is sadly known as the first exporter of ISIS fighters. I couldn't agree more with this! It is mostly attributed to the educational system. Engineering studies are focused mostly on math and physics and albeit present, Languages are treated like scond-class subjects. You end up with a generation of students who are effective engineers (to an extent) but who can't think at all. They are not ta…
I think more than what we are taught in engineering, the field itself tends to attract more conservative minded people (maybe because it's a safe field?). There's also correlations shown between religiosity, conservatism and studying engineering.
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#27Maybe it's simply that (civil) engineering is the go to higher education path that is vouched for by parents in arabic cultures? As it is considered one of the few pathways of upward mobility plus and crisis/future proof. At least from my experience in german higher education, that was my takeaway.
Would be reluctant to read too much into personally traits, when there are convincing other explanations.
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#28The left has managed to grasp control of academia, and shut other groups out[1]. I imagine the pattern will be reversed in countries where social studies means quran interpretation. [1] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/1/liberal-major...
There is no left, there is no right. There are two levers, connected to nothing, which we pull occasionally to quell dissent and give the illusion of self-determination. We are like children in a shopping cart, pretending we're at the helm - we aren't.
You're not wrong, but you're being a little rude. Your OP raised an earnest concern: people are being excluded from academia who shouldn't be. You responded by basically saying "the group of people you are alluding to doesn't even exist, the only purpose of that label is someone else's nefarious one".
It's quite likely there's another label besides "Right" which would point towards the group of people in question in a way you would accept. What is really gained by trying to enforce this nefarios depiction of what "Right" means?
We're like children in a shopping cart, some of whom are hogging all the books. Or at least all the good tenure-track jobs.
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#29Tunisian here. My country is sadly known as the first exporter of ISIS fighters. I couldn't agree more with this! It is mostly attributed to the educational system. Engineering studies are focused mostly on math and physics and albeit present, Languages are treated like scond-class subjects. You end up with a generation of students who are effective engineers (to an extent) but who can't think at all. They are not ta…
I think more than what we are taught in engineering, the field itself tends to attract more conservative minded people (maybe because it's a safe field?). There's also correlations shown between religiosity, conservatism and studying engineering.
I agree but those people are around 18 when they enroll into college, they can't be that close-minded. At least not until you show them (via curriculums) that there's to life more than science.
Re: Engineers of Jihad: Connection between Violent Extremism and Education
#30Thought experiment: replace "engineers" with "followers of Islam". The math still checks out, but suddenly I'm not so comfortable discussing the sociological/psychological reasons behind the correlation.