Prof. Ann Althouse on Justice Clarence Thomas

But this post isn’t really about Justice Thomas, Anita Hill, or even Prof. Althouse.

Prof. Althouse writes regarding Thomas’ view of Anita Hill:

“Could individuals with that much professional status be that evil?”

Tossing aside the specifics of who was telling the truth in the Thomas / Hill controversy, the answer is absolutely.

There’s a fallacy floating about that highly educated people are more moral, and that increases in education and technology will make us better folk.

This is not true.

Plenty of Nazis and Communists were highly educated, came from the best families, and went to the best schools. This didn’t seem to deter them from enthusiastic support of killing millions upon millions.

In socialist countries, professional status depends on your ability to do evil.

In our own day, highly educated folk such as Dr. Kevorkian have perfected serial killing schemes that generate positive publicity for themselves. An unusually high number of terrorists seem to have been trained as doctors. Boy Assad is also some sort of medico.

In terms of lawyerly evil in recent memory, I give you …. Mike Nifong. He was perfectly content to ruin the lives of three innocent young men to further his career. Who knows how many innocents he railroaded before the lacrosse case?

For that matter, what about Duke’s Gang of 88? All highly educated, yet unable to think critically.

Or Lynne Stewart, busy serving as willing courier for terrorists?

For that matter, depending on your political persuasion, there’s Scooter Libby, Sandy Berger, Tom Delay, William ‘Freezer’ Jefferson, Duke Cunningham, etc., etc., etc. Reaching further back, there’s Richard Nixon, Joe McCarthy, and Lyndon Johnson. And I don’t recommend letting Teddy Kennedy drive you home from a party. All men at the peak of ‘professional status’.

Sure, trivial compared to the Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and Castro. Doesn’t mean that it isn’t wrong.

All have sinned. Greater intelligence and education sometimes create greater opportunities and ability to do wrong.