Thomas wrote:I don't know. As for German chancellors, none of them were rich individuals. Schröder and Brandt were genuinely working class, the others were middle class. But something else does stand out when you compare our chancellors with your presidents: education. To my knowledge, only one out of your 43 presidents so far had a doctor's degree (Woodrow Wilson), while five of our eight chancellors did (Adenauer, Erhard, Kiesinger, Kohl, Schröder). I don't know where that difference come from, but the pattern seems too conspicuous to explain it as mere chance.
At least in Wilson's case that doesn't argue well for advanced education as an indicator of wisdom and political skill as a leader. I believe the worst decision by any American President in the 20th century was Wilson's to enter WWI. Nothing good came of it. There was no basis on which to prefer the greed and ambition of Britain and France to that of Germany and Austria Hungary. The infusion of American troops on the Western Front merely allowed Britain and France to transfer an equivalent number to the Middle East in their ill-fated dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. We are still dealing with the consaequences of that today.
Wilson, through his self-important and moralistic rhetoric excited hopes that neither he nor his "allies" were either inclined or able to deliver. The double-dealing and betrayals at Versailles by Lloyd George and Clemenceau, abetted by Wilson, set the stage for the ensuing disasters of the awful 20th century.
My experience in life suggests to me that a Doctorate qualifies one to teach or do research - little else. Wisdom, creativity, leadership, and strength of character are essential qualities that sometimes can be enhanced by advanced education, but are only rarely created by it. Indeed Adenauer and Kiesinger are an interesting contrast, together advancing the notion that personal qualities far transcent the levelling benefits of advanced education in political leadership.
American tradition (rather wisely I think) puts a degree of skepticism around self-appointed elites, including the educational one.
I have a PhD in science, and spent a good deal of time in graduate school. Apart from adding a degree of intyellectual self-confidence (arrogance some say), it has had little effect on my world view, my wisdom (to the degree that I have it) or the quality of my behavior.
I knew she was a physicist, but believed the GDR authorities didn't let her finish her dissertation. But a Google search quickly refuted that.
