Engineers of destruction
“From the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man—the function of his reasoning mind.”
—Ayn Rand
As I write this, it was less than a week ago that the world witnessed one of the most horrific acts of terrorism in history. In the wake of this tragedy, attention has of course focused on those responsible, and how anyone could have committed such a barbaric act.
The prime suspect is a radical Islamic fundamentalist living and hiding in the hills and caves of Afghanistan. He is also a trained civil engineer. Similarly, the so-called “mastermind” behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center—also a religious extremist—was an electrical engineer.
Citing their formal technical training, some journalists have suggested that these individuals represent a “new breed” of terrorist—elevating them to a status above that of the “common” terrorist. These new terrorists, journalists say, are “evil geniuses”—the “architects of the new terrorism.”
This is a misnomer, as there's nothing new about it. Formal technical training notwithstanding, these terrorists—like any other—are “architects” of only murder and destruction.
It is easy to destroy. History shows that any common thug, given the resources and a “cause,” is capable of murder and destruction on a massive scale.
It is the act of creating and building that is a true achievement—one that can only be accomplished through reason. Real engineers epitomize this process.
Using tools ranging from calculators and blueprints to the most sophisticated hardware and software, engineers—and their counterparts in other industries—are responsible for helping to build and create the society in which we live. And it is only through this process that lies the promise of future progress.
The tools of the terrorist are bombs, knives, and mindless followers willing to die for a cause. The objective: to tear down that which they could never hope to have been able to create in the first place.
It is a sad irony that in the war against terrorism, one battle has already been won: the battle of ideas. For acts such as the terrible events of September 11 could only have been planned and perpetrated by those who have already conceded defeat.
R. Pell, Editor-in-Chief
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