Talkbacks The perils of ignorance

Where to begin with this article? The writer tries to make a point, but does so in the most - ignorant (yes, ignorant) way. Success and intelligence do not go hand in hand. The level of education is by no means an objective measure of cleverness or knowledge and in fact, high education is often used as a criteria for job worthiness when in fact many students leave college with nothing more than an ability to parrot knowledge.

I worked with academics, and the number of professors who knew nothing about subjects outside of their narrow range, and who knew nothing about life skills, was astonishing. What makes intelligence is the ability to discriminate, to work things out in a logical way, to arrive at deductions that make sense to others, and to apply knowledge learned in a practical way. It doesn't matter what knowledge: it can be technical, artistic or scientific. A doctorate in science (in other words, theory) is of no use unless it is applied in a way that gets results.

Hendel uses typical elitist language here. He maintains that a military scholarship through the army produces better leaders, better politicians, better business skills etc. The army produces good soldiers, but the problem in Israel is that good soldiers do not always make good politicians.

He maintains that education is key to not being ignorant, or badly behaved. I don't know if anyone has noticed how holders of university degrees in the Knesset behave: education in a school does not make up for the lack of breeding in the home that makes brilliant scholars yell over each other and behave like rampaging bulls in public. They are living proof that education in itself is not always proof of intelligence.

And it is these educated, with illustrious army service behind them, who are the ones who sit quietly and allow low life like Hazan and Eliasi into their own ranks because, hey, it's numbers not brains that we need.

In further describing secularists as being "ignorant" in religious matters, he reveals his own [ignorant] prejudice. Religious belief is by its very nature a belief in the irrational, and questioning the validity of religions many superstitions, visions and the like is by no means a form of ignorance, but rather of educational fact-seeking.

I get where he's going with the likes of Eliasi, Hazan and, indeed, the so-called culture minister who advocates kissing amulets as a symbol of Jewish nationalism, but let us not forget that the person who appoints these people has been one of the elite: degrees, army cred, the lot. And it's stood for nothing when it's come to forming a government or appointing ministers.