Santorum: Education Is Of The Devil!

Some conservative fundamentalists hold a belief that education is evil. Rick Santorum seems to hold a similar belief. He holds a belief that the United States is ‘good’ and righteous therefore the devil has been attacking the U.S. and apparently his attack is education.

He was successful. He attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions. The place where he was, in my mind, the most successful and first successful was in academia. He understood pride of smart people. He attacked them at their weakest, that they were, in fact, smarter than everybody else and could come up with something new and different. Pursue new truths, deny the existence of truth, play with it because they’re smart. And so academia, a long time ago, fell.

-Satan is systemically destroying America.

This is convenient, any proven fact of science or logic can be thrown out as ‘evil’ without critical evaluation or acknowledging reality.

The danger with this mindset is that it places education in the category of ‘the evil’. Education liberates the oppressed. The mindset that education stems from a fear of the liberation of people from those who hold power over them. It’s much easier to keep control of others if they do not question their place. Of course Rick Santorum opposes education. Like many religious authoritarians truth and knowledge are threatening to their authority.

The positive side of this is that the power here is rooted in ignorance, and this is easily overcome by a little education. Education challenges oppression.  The negative side is that people are influenced by strong men like Seantorum. Because of this they fear education because it’s of the devil. The teaching that ‘learning is evil’ perpetuates oppression.

Medicine, science, psychology and logic are quickly dismissed with this rejection of education. It is an embrace of ignorance and human regression. The lack of knowledge or ignorance becomes the defense of ones actions. Study to show thyself approved is chucked right out of their religion and replaced with “obey to the white males who hold power over.”