Arrogance of the "Educated" Class

Labouring Under a Regimen of Fools

The Scriptures make a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. To know something is not the same as being wise with respect to it. For example, one may be highly educated in the intricacies of how a hunting rifle is constructed, its technical specifications, the peculiarities and functional applications of its calibre, the specifications of varieties of loads and what is superior for what conditions, its design provenance, the laws of physics operating when it is fired, and where that particular rifle fitted into the panoply of hunting rifles, past and present.

Knowing about all this does not ensure that the rifle will be used properly, safely, and effectively, without harm or damage to oneself or others. The Scripture warns of the dangers of knowledge when it says, "knowledge makes arrogant, but love builds up." (I Corinthians 8:1). In the Bible wisdom has to do not only with accurate and correct information, but the proper use and application of that knowledge to life. Wisdom is the happy condition of acting in a manner condign with the Creator as His sub-creator in His created world.

For many in the modern world, knowledge is the equivalence of wisdom. The our rationalistic age a wise person is the one who knows more, who is educated.
Thus, it has become increasingly common in political and social discourse in the United States (somewhat less so in New Zealand) to speak of the "educated classes" and the "uneducated classes": the former are superior, smarter, wiser, and better fitted to rule than the latter. Probably the most offensive thing about Sarah Palin to the liberal left in that country is that she is deemed uneducated, not part of the educated elite. She is therefore ignorant or stupid or both. She is consequently deemed completely unfit to be a political leader in the Republic.

In Biblical terms, however, it is possible that Palin may be deemed wise, and her political opponents, although Ivy League educated, fools. In Scriptural parlance, having read more books does not make one wise; it may merely mean one is a more loquacious polysyllabic fool. (In this vein, it is salutary to remember that when Ronald Reagan was campaigning for the Presidency, his political opponents and the media constantly portrayed him as simplistic and semi-idiotic. Without putting too fine a point on it, the narrative about Reagan was that he was dumb. He was not part of the educated class. Yet there are few now who would question that he was a highly effective President. In a similar vein, George Bush Jr was constantly caricatured as ignorant and stupid, a bumbling fool. Now with him there was a slight hiccup in the framing because he was a scion of the Ivy League: but he mangled his sentences (due to dyslexia) and that proved he was ignorant. Because he could not use words properly, he was obviously a fool, and was lampooned accordingly.)

In New Zealand, Anne Tolley, Minister of Education has regularly been smeared and attacked by her left wing political opponents, and by teacher unions as being ignorant, stupid, obtuse, and dumb. It is the same syndrome. Generally those on the left see themselves as being fundamentally smart because they are clever enough to promote statist solutions to every perceived problem. Their opponents are believed to be ignorant because either they don't see the problem in the first place, or if they do, they don't understand the only fundamental solution, which is always a state run, central government one.

Using the Bible's authoritative frame of reference we may acknowledge that a particular political leader may be highly educated, clever, smart, and intellectually sophisticated. But that does not make him or her wise: it may only serve to make them more dangerous. If, in their self-referencing cleverness, they pursue and enact laws and policies which are not condign with the Creator and His world, great damage will be done. Fools they will have proved to be.

Humility always attends the truly wise, for they recognize that they have no calling, authority, or right to attempt to remake the world in their own image. The truly wise consider themselves to be stewards, responsible to God, appointed and restricted to sub-creation, not original creation. The wise know they must work within God's frame; fools attempt to make a new world after their own image.

In our day, unfortunately, education often is inseparable from foolishness. To be under the aegis of the educated classes is not a pleasant prospect. For in our day, the "educated" are taught to be self-referential. They have been instructed that to be educated means that you have the knowledge, skills, insight and wisdom to be able to make a new world as it seems good to you. Because one is so endowed one deserves the people's respect and trust. One supposedly is therefore fit to lead and govern.

The Proverb says that one of the most difficult things for the earth to bear is when a slave becomes king. We can add to that. It is very difficult for a people to bear leaders who equate education with wisdom, who think that their education justifies their self-referential stupidity and foolishness.