Who needs brains when you’ve got nukes?

In many–maybe even most– poor areas of the world, there’s a theory that runs like so: Rich societies are educated societies, therefore, if our poor country spends a lot of money on public education, we will become a rich society.

Which is, of course, a concept riddled with fallacies. Just where, for example, did the public mind draw a cause and effect relationship between spending money on public education and the production of educated children? How does funding such programs actually cause anyone to become educated? It’s a mystery to me, but I’m not out to debunk this myth today.

No, I’m here to take a look at an even more fundamental issue, which is this: Just what is education, anyway? How did it ever get intertwined with the topic of economics?

To the American mind, education largely means acknowledging the legitimacy of chosen authorities. Children are “taught” to “respect” various organs of the System. They are graded on “citizenship.” Education, in a word, isn’t a whole lot different than the “propaganda” charges we hurl at countries that we don’t like. Society doesn’t care if the kids can read or write, but it does demand a minimum level of obedience. I’m not condemning the process, I’m merely identifying it.

What is education to one person is propaganda to someone else. The only way I can see the term “education” being anything but a purely subjective label is by turning to one very objective realm: mathematics.

Math is the ultimate educational yard stick. It can’t be interpreted subject to the political affiliation of the teacher. Mathematical abilities can be tested objectively. Math doesn’t care what you look like, who you are, or who you voted for. You can’t fake math. Math is the truth.

Education–real education, as opposed to mere indoctrination–is by its nature an intellectual endeavor. And so is math. I can find any two idiots who will argue and pontificate on politics or history or sociology, but idiots clam up when it comes to the cooly objective world of math. I once heard a tongue-wagging moron deliver an extemporaneous sermon on economic policy to someone, then reach for a calculator when she had to calculate ten percent of 320. The world is full of omniscient fools

Math, of course, isn’t for fools. It’s hard to learn and hard to teach. It’s the only basic academic subject you can’t simply glean from a book. It can’t be spun or skewed by political correctness or propaganda crusades. It’s the same, constant, absolute realm no matter where in the world you happen to encounter it. It is, of course, useful and enriching.

Focusing on the math angle sure clears the fog from that murky and loaded term “education.” Some societies have acknowledged that. Others (the United States included) haven’t. Academically, American kids are notoriously below the civilized norm. Economically, by contrast, the U.S. kicks butt. You’ve got to admit, a nation of rich half-wits is a pretty cool thing to behold. It really is an economic marvel. Is it a sustainable marvel? At some basic level, I’ve got my doubts.

After all, the world’s biggest economy and the world’s only military superpower remain in the collective hands of an electorate that needs a calculator to compute ten percent of a given number. There is something profoundly cool and utterly threatening about this situation.