Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers?

[RWebb]

As a follow up to their September 2008 article, IEEE Spectrum revisits the question of why a disproportionate number of terrorists have engineering degrees. According to the IEEE summary of the interview with political scientist Steffen Hertog, 'nearly half of [individuals involved in political violence] with degrees have been engineers.' The interview makes some interesting points (lack of job opportunities for engineers despite a relatively high social status) and some suspect ones (e.g. framing Islamic culture into the western left vs. right politics).

[krystar]

well umm...engineers are the ones smart enuff to learn how to fly on their own. whereas all the rest of the public are still wonder how 18 yr old barefoot Colton could steal a plane.

i bet any of the engineers on the forum here could devise a plan to cause major systematic damage to our country.....we just wouldn't think about executing such plans

[sammyg2]

Because we're just plain honery. That's why

[TechnoViking]

Engineers think they are smart enough to run the company, but generally they don't.

Years of being managed by folks who partied through college and got business degrees can make one angry.

[Pazuzu]

Half of the engineers went insane in college.

The other half go insane later, and become terrorist.

I do believe that Shakespeare mentioned kill all engineers first...

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Half of the engineers went insane in college.

The other half go insane later, and become terrorist.

I do believe that Shakespeare mentioned kill all engineers first...

Shakespeare was obviously a liberal arts major.
What he really said was "do you want to super-size that?"

[Jeff Higgins]

We just like to build shyte then blow it up.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

We just like to build shyte then blow it up.

My dad was an explosives R&D engineer for Hercules for many years and then moved into rocket engines, and he never blew up anything he wasn't supposed to.

I work in refineries and they blow up sometimes, but you can't pin that on me. Nobody saw nuthin!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Half of the engineers went insane in college.



The other half go insane later, and become terrorist.



I do believe that Shakespeare mentioned kill all engineers first...

Ditto. They obviously work the same place I do.

[Hugh R]

If you got paid to blow Schit up, wouldn't you?

[unclebilly]

Oh that's easy. They spent 4 - 5 years of their life in classrooms with no girls...

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Shakespeare was obviously a liberal arts major.

So...he's probably the BOSS of some engineers?

[IROC]

Watch the movie "Falling Down"...

[BGCarrera32]

Civil Engineers build targets.
Mechanical Engineers build weapons.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by iroc

watch the movie "falling down"...

+1.0e^+0

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

So...he's probably the BOSS of some engineers?

Nope. yer thinking of people with MBAs AND engineering degrees.

[boba]

A lot of insight in these posts.

I think a lot of it has to do with binary view vs. shades of gray.

Most talented technical people see the world in a binary context. This is good for the skill sets that they pursue but make many "life Issues" difficult to deal with.

The classic profile of a successful CIO was one who could make the transition form the technical side (binary) to the business side (gray) and function in both worlds, but more than that translate between the two.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by boba

Most talented technical people see the world in a binary context.

Nice unsupportable generalization and example of binary thinking.

[boba]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

Nice unsupportable generalization and example of binary thinking.

Having lived in that world for 30+ years it is not an unsupportable generalization, also note use of the term "most". So Jim point made.

[Jim Richards]

I think "most" is unsupportable, based on my living in that world for a similar time frame. We can do this all night.