Education Not a Foregone Conclusion

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Apparently increasing affluence also encourages people to indulge in increasing speculation without careful attention to the application of scientific methodology despite increasing educational attainments. 

The source.

Offenbar ermutigt der steigende Wohlstand Menschen dazu, sich in zunehmendem Maße in Spekulationen zu ergehen, ohne gewissenhaft darauf zu achten, dass die methodischen Anforderungen moderner Wissenschaft erfüllt werden, und dies, obwohl Bildungserfolge – [ich in meiner Eigenschaft als vorwitziger Übersetzer würde eher sagen: Bildungszugang und die Verbreitung von Bildungsnachweisen unter der Bevölkerung] – steigende Tendenz aufweisen.

Commentary only in English:

Education is not something that remains the same (hopefully high quality) product simply by providing more of it. Education is easily turned into propaganda, which is the prevalent conception of it in the West, especially in countries like Germany, where substantive political competition and open ideological disputes are disappearing. It is both impressive and eerie to compare the heated debates that are going on in the USA — expressions of pluralism and healthy opposition — with the uniformity of political correctness in Germany.

The Achilles heel of education are people. One of the Achilles heels of people is authority. Many people prefer authority (promising security) to insecurity. Science is insecurity, open-mindedness, tolerance of critique and revision of cherished beliefs. Hence, there is a strong temptation for many people to seek the security of authority in science. Most people actually think of science as a machine that produces indubitable truths. That is why politicians like to couch their propositions in terms of scientific truths, if they have the slightest chance of getting away with that trick. 

In the age of political correctness — a term that openly reveals its totalitarian ambition — statements enjoying authoritative status in the political realm creep steadily into science inducing political ossification of science. The politically correct myths and prejudices of fossilised science become the new educational ideals.

If you increase access to education under these conditions you achieve the opposite of what education is supposed to be about: the formation of open, discerning and critical minds. Instead you get brainwashed masses as in Germany, where the broad population has not been able to figure out the plain absurdity of the Energiewende, even though it could rely on substantial educational resources and had, say, easily 20 years time for the penny to drop.

Frankly, I think Germany is a particularly dangerous country, because Germans are first and foremost Gehorsamsmaschinen (machines made to exercise obedience). As such they are exceedingly predisposed to political correctness and its pre-ordained tenets that everyone must subject themselves to on account of their being correct, i. e. authenticated by authority, thus authoritative and hence to be obeyed by all means. All other talents supposedly characteristic for Germans – like thoroughness – disappear quickly if Gehorsam (obedience) requires their removal. That is why Germans are susceptible to irrationality. The anchor to which they are tied is not rationality but obedience.

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