There are plenty of well educated thieves. Knowledge is not wisdom. I read this the other day, and believe it to be true: Evil educated oppressors are not merely ignorant – anything but! They may well know the history of suffering and kindness better than most. They (between them) know the biological, psychological and sociological facts about human experience, suffering and death. No, the difference between the educated and the uneducated is that one is more calculating and able to impose his will on a larger number. One can come up with more efficient ways to kill. One can articulate himself better and deceive more people. Education does not make people like this (although for some people, it fuels the existing flame that is their own sense of personal greatness). Similarly, education does not stop people from being like this. I suppose it is possible that when people say that oppressively-minded, bigoted people really just need education, by “education” they mean something like “persuading people to be tolerant and accepting of everyone.” But this makes the suggestion vacuous, because it would boil down to saying “people who are cruel, bigoted and oppressive need to be taught not to be cruel, bigoted and oppressive.” And this surely isn’t what education means. To be educated means to be taught to understand facts and ideas. If all you mean by “education” is “getting someone to a point where they share my values,” then how is it that when regimes under Hitler and Stalin did that very thing you call it “propaganda”?
