{"id":91,"date":"2005-10-27T11:14:29","date_gmt":"2005-10-27T17:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=91"},"modified":"2005-11-04T00:05:43","modified_gmt":"2005-11-04T06:05:43","slug":"dont-bank-on-id-fading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/id\/dont-bank-on-id-fading\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Bank on ID Fading"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t read Winthrop Quigley every week, but I have found a <\/p>\n

couple of his columns informative and worth reading. He’s not just an AmeriCog stoking the Capitalist Machine. That’s why it’s too bad <\/p>\n

his column today is effectively buried in Business Outlook (it’s standard location). Though he includes a business reference, his topic <\/p>\n

transcends it.<\/p>\n

Quigley offers his own decent take on the fallacy of equating Intelligent Design with science. I consider it anti-<\/p>\n

science new-speak — “dumbing down” taken to a new aggressiveness. Still, I’m happy to see Quigley weigh in on the side of light in the <\/p>\n

struggle against the New American Dark Ages (NADA).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ABQjournal: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong in Science Class<\/a> By Winthrop Quigley, Journal Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Intelligent <\/p>\n

design has no long-run future in America’s science curricula because the dominant philosophy of the United States is not evangelical <\/p>\n

Christianity, it is capitalism.<\/p>\n

American business simply will not tolerate the further dumbing down of its future workforce’s <\/p>\n

science education with metaphysical speculation masquerading as biology. It cannot afford to. …<\/p>\n

Regardless of any spiritual <\/p>\n

angst one might feel, the fact remains that ID is bad for business.<\/p>\n

Corporate America, especially its technology companies, is <\/p>\n

very worried about losing its competitive advantage over India, China and other Asian countries because of a poorly educated workforce. <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

And here is Quigley’s logical flaw, made worse by ignoring the true meaning of the quote he then <\/p>\n

takes from Friedman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thomas L. Friedman in his book “The World Is Flat” said every major company he interviewed for <\/p>\n

the book “is investing significantly in research and development abroad. It is not ‘follow the money.’ It is ‘follow the brains.’ <\/p>\n

”<\/p>\n

In our current global economy, it is cheaper to go to the PhD’s than hire them here. Heartless and <\/p>\n

soulless, corporations build their headquarters where the tax structure benefits them (which is also where their executives and boards <\/p>\n

live) and they build their offices and factories where they find the optimal combination of cheap but just-adequately skilled <\/p>\n

labor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While Rio Rancho schools are working to put non-science into their science program, a kid in India is <\/p>\n

preparing to take our kids’ technology jobs. I promise you, the Indian kid is not wasting his time studying ID. …<\/p>\n

[Intel] will <\/p>\n

build its new plants where the workforce is properly trained.<\/p>\n

When that happens in enough communities, watch ID quietly leave <\/p>\n

the science classroom<\/p>\n

Though I enjoyed and respect the piece and encourage you to read the whole <\/p>\n

thing<\/a>, I think Quigley makes an important mistake. He believes Capitalism will save the day (perhaps he is an AmeriCog, after all). <\/p>\n

Yes, business will realize that slack-jawed workers aren’t good for the company. Unfortunately, Quigley overlooks the value of slack-<\/p>\n

jawed consumers (isn’t that why we have Channel One in schools?). It may be that it is in business’s interest to employ cheaper and <\/p>\n

smarter Chinese PhD’s to come up with new products for rich and ignorant American buyers.<\/p>\n

Or, perhaps we should look to Evangelical <\/p>\n

Colorado Springs<\/a> for the model of business in the NADA<\/acronym>. Super-zealot <\/p>\n

employees and<\/em> consumers must yield the highest profits.<\/p>\n

Get your authentic replica<\/strong> of Jesus on a <\/p>\n

dinosaur now!<\/em> mjh<\/span><\/p>\n

See BugMeNot.com<\/a> if you are not a Journal subscriber.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t read Winthrop Quigley every week, but I have found a couple of his columns informative and worth reading. He’s not just an AmeriCog stoking the Capitalist Machine. That’s why it’s too bad his column today is effectively buried in Business Outlook (it’s standard location). Though he includes a business reference, his topic transcends … Continue reading Don’t Bank on ID Fading<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}