First post - On Education

By popular demand - well, to the extent that the author is popular, of course - I have a blog. Rejoice, etc.

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Suppose China, or Russia, or a bunch of Middle Eastern countries decide that the US is an altogether too violent nation, with radical unilateralist policies, lack of economic opportunity, and a disproportionately lower-class military. Noting the oft-maligned state of American public education, they decide to start pouring money into the US education system. Oh, and they start discouraging parochial and private schools for good measure. Only money for public schools. That is, of course, if the US stops promoting wars and violence as instruments of foreign policy in its curriculum. That will have to stop.

If other nations started doing this, would Americans really like the rest of the world more? Maybe a few would be grateful for the extra money, but most likely the conservatives and hawks would be even more energized, and people would start talking about 'plots against America' by the foreign interests, and distrust their government for its compliance with these subversive outsiders.

So I wonder why people really expect doing the same sort of 'de-radicalizing' via educational systems is supposed to work in the Middle East and other regions. I'm not saying ALL Muslims or foreign citizens would be angry or paranoid, but there are enough out there to make things difficult, just as there are people in America who would flip out if they figured out their child's education was being bankrolled by the Saudis. Furthermore, secular schools hardly mean moderate students. Osama himself went to a secular "Model School" in Saudi Arabia. Having the West shove educational reforms down the throats of other nations isn't going to improve things politically. The US is still subverting fundamentalist beliefs, interfering in the affairs of others, and engaging in a conspiracy against some group or another. Will it anger all foreign citizens? Probably not. But we don't need all of them to want to fight for some to. It only takes a minority of the Muslim population to cause existing levels of terrorism, too.

I'm all for education. On the whole, it is a great thing. But it's not going to solve everything, terrorism included. This is not an appeal against supporting education in the Islamic world, or indeed any other area with US PR problems - only an appeal against using it as a substitute for an actual foreign policy.