2010/1/12 Mahesh Murthy <mahesh.mur...@gmail.com> > Actually, I find myself nodding in agreement here. > > My 'logic' is nothing more than the gut-feel that, at least in the case of > students from developing nations, the ones more driven to "do something > with > their lives" typically tend to take the more difficult / "rewarding" > engineering courses. > > Follows that they might also be the ones more amenable to what the rest of > us might call extremist dogma.
> It's a plausible plotline, methinks: > > A young man raised to believe he is among the best and brightest in his > community/country migrates to a prosperous Western country for higher > education and/or employment in a field that encourages a reductionist, > technocratic worldview. Once there he is neither able to find work worthy of > his talents and education nor social acceptance among his peers. As he sinks > deeper into self-pity he seeks refuge in a physical or virtual ethnic ghetto > where he is a highly prized potential recruit to extremist groups who build > on his persecution complex with evidence of the global conspiracy against > his people and offer him the opportunity to deploy his skills to achieve > vengeance for his own tribulations and the significance that he believes is > his birthright. >
