Education And Rational Discourse

Information is the currency of a democracy. - Thomas Jefferson

Take any societal ill you choose, unleash the power of the human mind through education and rational discourse, and more often than not, a proper solution will be found. Rarely, if ever, will that solution include the creation of or increase in government regulation. History has proved that lesson time and time again.

Nowhere is this disconnect between what history teaches and what reality entails greater than in the ideological battle that is part of the very real Global War on Terror. Perhaps what the apologists for terrorists, most notably Hollywood and their sycophants on the left, have forgotten is that their opinions were forged in the fires of western education. Each one of us is free to research, debate, and accept or reject opinions of others precisely because we live in a free society.

As the cartoon jihad continues, we find the apologists defending the response on the basis that the cartoons offended the Muslims. To the liberal mindset, the reaction was our fault for not respecting their feelings. That the response was disproportionate and extremely violent is immaterial to this line of thinking. The fact that the demonstrations were so widespread proves, to the apologists anyway, that respecting feelings is the noblest principle.

This mentality blinds us to some true facts about the world of radical Islam. One of those facts is that only certain people are allowed to get an education, and it is the leaders (i.e., government) who gets to decide upon whom to bestow this right. Another simple fact is that under radical Islam all women are absolutely forbidden to receive an education. Thus, it is clear that only a very small part of the population would have the ability and the opportunity to be exposed to opposing viewpoints. It goes further, however, in that the very educational system itself is governed by the Koran. It should be obvious from this that the level of the response was artificially increased by the manipulation of an uneducated populace.

No one has ever contended that every Muslim believes in the radical interpretations of the jihadiis. Yet even within moderate communities there have been efforts to move from pseudo-democracy to true sharia law. Thus, even in so-called “progressive” places like India, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, women have virtually no rights. They cannot go to school. They cannot go outside without a male escort. They cannot choose their own friends. They cannot vote. If I am not mistaken, the only places where Muslim women have even basic freedoms are Israel(!), India, and now Afghanistan and Iraq. With little access to non-government controlled information, even those who are lucky enough to attend school never hear opposing viewpoints.

We know from our own experiences in the west that it is very easy to control a population when only some of them are educated. Consider this example - for over a thousand years, humans believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. With no way to test this for themselves and no alternatives, people were easily led into this erroneous belief. Due to education, scientific inquiry, and the free exchange of ideas, it became increasingly clear that this was not the case. In order to preserve the world view, the Catholic Church used its power to force people to accept this wrong idea because they felt the alternative was in opposition to the religion. Those who dared to defy the Church teachings were excommunicated or executed. Of important note in this is that it was the free-thinkers and scientists who suffered these fates, not the uneducated masses. Is it any wonder then that the response to the cartoons was so easily manipulated by the leaders of radical Islam?

The parallels to what is happing in the world today are staggering. Any Muslim who dares speak out in favor of free speech is immediately lambasted by the radical Islamic world. One Muslim editor of a newspaper in France was fired for having dared to publish the cartoons. Many other Muslims have been threatened with physical harm for expressing an opinion considered by the radicals to be contrary to their religion.

The strictest interpretation of the Koran would dictate that no image of anything is permissible, yet the Arab press daily is full of anti-American and anti-Semitic cartoons that are much more derogatory than the images of Mohamed. The Muslim masses do not question this apparent contradiction because this is the only world view they know, and to question is to face possible death. This is not proof that respecting feelings is the most important goal of society – it is proof that the uneducated masses are slaves to their radical leaders.

Arthur Schopenhauer once said, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” We are in phase two now. The theocracies in the Middle East first tried to keep their people from learning about western ideas. They did this by controlling all sources of information and by blaming western society for every problem in the lives of their citizens. The light of Democracy has a way of quickly spreading. Recognizing that a small candle is now burning in the very heart of the Muslim world, the theocrats were forced to propagandize the GWOT as a war on Islam itself. The predictable result was violence.

It's not rocket science. Radical Islam can only exist as long as some countries can keep their citizens under control with a Middle Ages mindset. Denying them basic human rights and fomenting anger against the West are the tools of choice. Only through free education can the battle for the hearts and minds be won. And only through democracy can the educational system be reformed.