So much for the Hippocratic Oath. The latest terror attacks in the United Kingdom were apparently carried out by doctors.
The specifics of the case are admittedly bizarre, but the general principle that acts of terror are often committed by individuals with high levels of education is not at all unusual, a fact I learned from economist Alan Krueger‘s excellent new book What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism, due to be published next month.
I’ll write more about Krueger’s book when it is closer to the publication date.
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This is not new. Most, if not all, the 9/11 terrorists were from well-off families with a good level of education. Osama comes from a very wealthy family.
I wouldn’t be surprised that looking back at similar people in history will show that most of the leaders/main participants were well off and well educated for the time.
Which follows. If you are poor you don’t have the time, inclination or resources to really formant trouble.
This is not new. Most, if not all, the 9/11 terrorists were from well-off families with a good level of education. Osama comes from a very wealthy family.
I wouldn’t be surprised that looking back at similar people in history will show that most of the leaders/main participants were well off and well educated for the time.
Which follows. If you are poor you don’t have the time, inclination or resources to really formant trouble.
Ted Kaczynski
Ted Kaczynski
I’ve never understood the popular idea that terrorists are the malleable, ignorant, brain-washed. Many kinds of terror require an intellectual commitment which places an ideal above human life. The extreme reach of “the ends justify the means” has been seen in the Bolshevist infliction of terror, in the Chinese Communist use of terror, in the 60′s/70′s radical gangs, etc. The Bolsheviks talked openly about the importance of terror as a tool.
I’ve never understood the popular idea that terrorists are the malleable, ignorant, brain-washed. Many kinds of terror require an intellectual commitment which places an ideal above human life. The extreme reach of “the ends justify the means” has been seen in the Bolshevist infliction of terror, in the Chinese Communist use of terror, in the 60′s/70′s radical gangs, etc. The Bolsheviks talked openly about the importance of terror as a tool.
I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I’ve always understood the Hippocratic Oath to apply only to the practice of medicine and not to a doctor’s entire life. For example, if a doctor were at home when an armed lunatic broke in and threatened him, and the had an opportunity to shoot the intruder, and thus go on living and helping people and saving lives, that would be the morally correct thing to do, although certainly not a pretty choice.
I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I’ve always understood the Hippocratic Oath to apply only to the practice of medicine and not to a doctor’s entire life. For example, if a doctor were at home when an armed lunatic broke in and threatened him, and the had an opportunity to shoot the intruder, and thus go on living and helping people and saving lives, that would be the morally correct thing to do, although certainly not a pretty choice.