Hi Do Engineers Make Good Terrorists?
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- "o, - before I incite an online riot, I should note this disclaimer: I do not believe you, sir or madam, are a terrorist."
However, your intrinsic knowledge of technical and mechanical principles makes you about four times more likely to be a terrorist…and therefore I've already submitted your IP address to the Department of Homeland Security. (I'm joking; we all know they don't need the likes of me for such tedium!).
I mean what is "terrorism" anyway? Nothing but a difference in ideals and an enflaming label to rally behind. But the past 20 years has shown subversive rebels in our midst represent a real, dangerous threat to everyone, everywhere-no matter your allegiance or location.
First, the anecdotes. In 2010, several high-profile terrorist acts were perpetrated by engineers. In February of that year, a software engineer crashed his plane into an IRS office. In March, an engineering grad student shot up the Pentagon. May was a busy month, as a network engineer tried to bomb Times Square, and a civil engineer was caught smuggling weapons onto an airliner. Let's not forget the mastermind behind 9/11 was an architectural engineer, and eight of the hijackers were engineers themselves. Lashkar e-Taiba, the Pakistan group responsible for the Mumbai attacks, and Hezbollah, the terrorist organization in power in Lebanon, aggressively recruit engineers to their ranks.
But there is hard data to back up this conclusion. This study reviewed 400 known terrorists from 30 nations in Africa and the Middle East, who had been born between 1950 and 1979. They discovered that terrorists tend to come from prosperous families, are better educated, and are three to four times more likely to have an engineering degree than any other type. And of those radical Muslims born or raised in Western countries, 60% are engineers. Other studies suggest that engineers are likely to have leadership roles in terrorist organizations, but are unlikely to exploit their knowledge when carrying out attacks. This means that the link between engineers and terrorism is based more on an individual's ideological beliefs than a targeted need for knowledgeable individuals.
There are a few hypotheses to explain this link. First, it's likely that engineering jobs in many Middle East countries were scarcer than the individuals qualified to fill them. Unemployment and class disparity quickly leads to civil unrest-remember the Occupy movement? The lone country examined where engineers did not compose a disproportionate number of terrorists was Saudi Arabia, a country where oil riches have indeed trickled down.
Also, in a demographic survey of engineers, it was determined that engineers are twice as likely to consider themselves both very religious and right-wing conservative; 46% of American engineers identify as religious and conservative, compared to 22% of scientists. It's been empirically proven that conservative attitudes prefer questions which provide closure, rather than open-ended challenges with myriad solutions.
In a stark contrast to engineer-terrorists, there is no disproportionate ratio between engineers and communists, anarchists or gang members.
So now it is your turn to weigh in CR4. Do you believe that engineers are more likely to be turned into terrorists? How do you explain the unusually high number of engineering-bred terrorists?
Please remember to be mature and thoughtful in your responses.
Hi Resources; Recommended Hi Reads Engineering & Terror Content Interestingly Validity Points Of Views Presented & Articulated Matching Up Our Nations Engineered Suspects!>!
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