No, we need to win the war against violent, Islamic extremism, and violent religious fundamentalism, in general.
In that regard, schools and education are just another weapon in a combined military / social arsenal. As it turns out, the schools are cheaper than the missiles.
The reason that, for example, Palestinian textbooks contain maps omitting Israel is that they don't want to teach their children a fair and peaceful message.
Schools are great when people are reasonably open to living peacefully but can't work when people do not want peace and sabotage attempts at real education. So, unfortunately, we're going to need a bunch of missiles.
I know it's hard to grasp, but there are people who do things like destroy greenhousesof their own out of spite or hate. If you give them a a voluntary choice, some people don't want peace; their agenda for how the world should be comes first.
You know, it's funny, one of the memes strong enough to change some dangerous people enough to be safe is Christianity, but the idea of converting Muslims to Christianity is met with extremely loud screeching about how we shouldn't do that and they should be allowed to believe the (uncivilized) things they believe now. If we can't convert them to peaceful Western values then it's going to be missiles.
You can't just walk into Palestine, build a school, and teach the children there to be peaceful. It's not just that no parents will send their kids to your school; it's also that people there will kill you for trying to do this.
Read the specific claims in the article about the mothers who persuaded their sons to leave the Taliban.
We need to imprison or kill the violent people who can't be reasoned with, but we need to offer an alternative to those who are capable of choosing one. Over time, their numbers will grow.
Educating, and eventually, empowering women helps on all fronts.
Educating, and eventually, empowering women helps on all fronts.
Interesting claim.
Not that I say that we should blatantly discriminate against women, but would you argue that the discrimination against women in our culture and history in any way seems to have inhibited the development of our civilization?
Women's liberation is a rather recent thing and I say we have still done quite well.
I wasn't so much talking about us, but about developing countries. More educated, empowered women tend to have fewer children, and take a greater role in managing their families' finances. All this supposedly leads to fewer angry young men in the world.
If you look at the history of philosophy or science you don't find a lot of women. But there could have been. It's a shame. The more scientists and philosophers (and many other things) the faster we make progress.
My position is that we need missiles and schools both. The fact that there are places where we can't set up schools makes clear that we sometimes need the missiles.
As far as I can tell from your comment, you agree with me. You, too, think there are people we need to kill.
In that regard, schools and education are just another weapon in a combined military / social arsenal. As it turns out, the schools are cheaper than the missiles.
The point is, if we don't do this, we will lose.