Not philosophers, not politicians, not writers, poets, artists, or truck drivers. They are all needed to an extent, but it will be the engineers who will save humanity if there is any humanity left to save. (No, I'm not an engineer).

A leopard without spots to change.
A Muslim telling the truth.
Al Sharpton donating to a worthy cause.

We engineers are more likely to be nerds. We often get jobs where we feel like pawns of people who stand on our shoulders without understanding what we do. I've seen people become bitter and assert their dignity by making bosses beg them publically to get something working. Maybe a handful of engineers take if further and resort to mass murder.

It goes against a rationalist engineer's inclination, but having a positive and helpful attitude is hugly powerful. Attitude is what makes the bitter engineer start his own company that produces huge value instead of languishing in poorly-run institutions that Lucky mentions or worse.

I agree with most of Lucky's comment, except for the part that says we have X number of STEM jobs and a greater number of STEM people. There's an infinite number of jobs if people look hard enough for ways to use what they have to produce things others want in exchange for money.

An engineering education can provide the tools with which to accomplish things. Whether those things be for good or for ill depends on the philosophical underpinnings of those who learn. This is precisely why we require some ethics content in an engineering education, and more humanities courses than most engineers deem necessary. Please pardon the analogy as it is most definitely not Objectivist, but I liken it to the training of Jedi knights. If there is not sufficient philosophical training to accompany the technical, then the knight goes to "the dark side". Ms. Rand really captured this aspect in the Patrick Henry University training of the characters of Galt, D'Anconia, and Danneskjold. This is an issue I am constantly concerned about.

Seeing armed little kids in black and on the march with the beards of ISIS is pretty creepy.

Not strictly to MM's post, but still relates:

"..published five years ago .. but the gentle patter of reassuring words about the peaceful nature of Islam will have a familiar ring. Here was another bright young Muslim woman assuring a dutiful reporter that her faith, .... is a creed inspired by nothing but love, peace and lashings of good fellowship .... "

"There's this misconception that Islam is a violent religion," she continued, "Muslims are actually peaceful."

The speaker was Yasmeen Abdulazeez.
Last week her brother, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez 24, attacked two US Navy recruiting stations, murdering four Marines and wounding a police officer before being shot dead.

http://quadrant.org.au/ essential reading

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/li...

MM the question is good but the inferred answer is wrong.
I think you will find the correlation predominates among western educated muslims.
( Ahmadinejad notwithstanding)
The reason is widespread disillusionment which comes from a popular myth we are all immersed in - that is - we need more science technology engineering management graduates. This myth is a consequence of the growth of credentialism , the growth of tertiary education as colleges becomes businesses dependent of government money, the myth benefits the education industry, even non-technical people are vocal proponents. The intelligent and upwardly mobile youth study hard in STEM, borrow, then find on graduation that jobs are sparse. most of the jobs are in big corps with security clearances and stereotyped recruitment, governments are the worse. Since the jobs are in big corps, there are inevitable big layoffs, these can be hundreds or thousands, the experienced and qualified then are looking for work among a vast cohort. Yet they still hear the myth that we need ....
It may come from the big corps, it helps to have a ready supply of labor for the next gov contract they will bid on.
This hits the new migrant family the worse, youth with better contacts and sources of advice have a better chance of finding better career choices.

Quite a strange trend Mike. How would you prefer comments here vs on your blog? I'm thinking...

Brain-wash early and often.
Eliminate rational thought before it takes root.

2 military bases-gun free zones. Like an Airforce without planes. Like a stripper with clothes which never come off. Like a bible thumper without the good book. a zebra without stripes.