July 01, 2004

Kerry's Arrogance

Clay Whittaker notes that Sen. Kerry is distressed that female college students aren't proportionally represented in math and science. There's no reason to get into whether men and women are hardwired to excell in different subjects. What should really disturb freedom lovers is this passage as quoted by Whittaker:

If elected president, I will help children know whether they want to get a scientific degree by nudging them in the correct direction.

Call me a constitutional literalist, but I find nothing in that founding document giving the President the power or responsibility to decide what citizens should study in college. In this time of the Islamist War, budget deficits, an entitlement situation ready to implode, and other problems whether there are "enough" people with XX chromosomes studying math and science should be near the bottom of any President's priority list.

Then there's also the arrogance that Kerry knows what the "correct direction" is for an individual. Even with the intellegence Kerry possesses he cannot have the time nor the ability to collect and evaluate the information needed to make those kind of decisions for people he knows little about. He can certainly "nudge" his children and close friends since he's more aware of their individual situations, but to advise Jane in Michigan whether to major in math instead of theater or business or education is worth little more than the guess it is.

I link often to F. A. Hayek's essay "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (possibly the most important economic work of the 20th Century) because it's insights are so profound. This has to be required reading for Kerry.

"Kerry's Ignorance"