It is way to simplistic (and escapist if I may add) to blame extremism on ignorance and lack of education.
Some if not all of the most rabid extremists the world has ever seen and who continue to plague the earth were intelligent, articulate, cultured, and highly educated.
Every belief and movement will always have the foot soldier rabble. Look at the top. Chop at the top. The trunk will follow.
Well, I may say the same...it is too simple to blame it all on religion or ideologies...There is always 2 sides to a coin. Everything doesn't run in 1 direction. Situations arise due to a mixture of causes!
Maybe you have not seen a mixture of the conditions you mentioned. An intelligent person who is ignorant in MANY ways is a deadly weapon!
I will give you an example...No matter in which subject a person may have done their PhD, but if he is ignorant of certain things or has hatred (built by ignorance, lack of understanding and tolerance) he/ she will flush all sense and stubbornly stick to stupidity!
Very nice article, but please do not contradict yourself at the end of it.
Jews are about 30 million worldwide, so on 6 billion people with so many (in the hundreds of millions) who put so much emphasis on education too, there must be much more smarter people than the Jews.
I am sorry but I fail to see the contradiction in what I said.
MANY people do invest in their education:
The Asians make their daughters doctors- by occupying seats for candidates who can help the nation, these female take the seats, graduate so they can good suitors. - Well spent on education but didnt improve anything there as there is no knowledge transfer!
Arabs RARELY spend a penny on their education! They will wait 3-10 yrs as long as the government gives them a scholarship...yup they are ready to sacrifice in waiting to be paid to study...AND WHEN they get the scholarships- all the do is pay others to do their work for them and go home with a distinction!
Whoelse is in line?
So, Mr. Naive, rich and spending money on education doesn't make you rich if you are incapable of transferring the knowledge or making use of it!