In this latest episode of the Didactic Mind podcast, I discuss the rather curious phenomenon that we see today of the Eurasian nations being led by (largely) competent, capable, sensible people who are well-suited to their specific positions, versus the completely imbecilic and childish idiots leading the West. I posit a theory that the people in Cabinet-level positions in Western nations are not only miseducated, but MALEDUCATED – that is to say, deeply unqualified for their roles, and totally incapable of learning enough to become qualified for them. I talk about the differences between Western and Russian/Chinese/Indian education systems, and talk in particular about the very different levels of emphasis on mathematics and science in those systems.
While I believe that no one can be truly educated without having a comprehensive understanding of other humanities disciplines, I argue that the lack of a firm analytical foundation, created by studying mathematics, science, and engineering of some kind, makes the elite graduates of Western universities highly incapable of dealing with the real world.
Finally, I discuss how the current Western educational environment is DEEPLY incestuous, in the sense that it creates elites who basically just sniff each other’s farts and live in a thoroughly delusional bubble that is totally disconnected from reality.
The table that I compiled in my discussion can be seen down below, and as always, you are free to examine the data for yourself to see if my rough working theory has any foundation.
| Country | Name | Position | Education |
| Russia | Vladimir Putin | President | Law, Economics |
| Russia | Sergei Shoigu | Defence Minister | Civil Engineering |
| Russia | Sergei Lavrov | Foreign Minister | International Relations, Languages |
| Russia | Dmitry Medvedev | Deputy Head of Security Council | Law |
| Russia | Mikhail Mishustin | Prime Minister | Systems Engineering |
| Russia | Andrey Belousov | First Deputy Prime Minister | Economics |
| Russia | Viktoria Abramchenko | Deputy Prime Minister | Environmental Engineering |
| Russia | Dmitry Grigorenko | Deputy Prime Minister | Finance |
| Russia | Dmitry Patrushev | Minister of Agriculture | Management |
| Russia | Maxim Reshetnikov | Minister of Economic Development | Mathematics & Economics, Linguistics & Translation |
| Russia | Sergei Kravtsov | Minister of Education | Teaching Mathematics & Computer Science |
| Russia | Anton Siluanov | Minister of Finance | Finance and Credit, Economics |
| Russia | Denis Manturov | Minister of Trade & Industry | Sociology, Economics |
| Russia | Vitaly Savelyev | Minister of Transport | Mechanical Engineering, Economics |
| China | Xi Jinping | General Secretary | Chemical Engineering |
| China | Li Keqiang | Premier | Law, Economics |
| China | Han Zheng | Vice Premier | Engineering, Economics |
| China | Liu He | Minister of Finance, Technology, Industry, Transport | Industrial Economics, Public Administration |
| China | Wei Fenghe | Minister of Defence | Artillery Command |
| China | Wang Yi | Foreign Minister | Asian & African Languages, Japanese |
| India | Narendra Modi | Prime Minister | Political Science |
| India | Rajnath Singh | Minister of Defence | Physics |
| India | Subramanyam Jaishankar | Foreign Minister | Political Science, International Relations |
| India | Nirmala Sitharam | Minister of Finance | Economics |
| India | Piyush Goyal | Minister of Commerce and Industry | Law, Accounting |
| India | Hardeep Singh Puri | Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas | History |
| USA | Joseph Biden | President | History and Political Science, Law |
| USA | Kamala Harris | Vice President | Political Science and Economics, Law |
| USA | Janet Yellen | Treasury Secretary | Economics |
| USA | Merrick Garland | Attorney General | Law |
| USA | Tom Vilsack | Commerce Secretary | Law |
| USA | Jennifer Granholm | Energy Secretary | Political Science and French, Law |
| USA | Avril Haines | Director of National Intelligence | Law |
| USA | Anthony Blinken | State Secretary | Social Studies, Law |
| USA | Lloyd Austin | Defence Secretary | Counselor Education, MBA |
| USA | Jake Sullivan | National Security Advisor | International Relations & Political Science, Law |
| Germany | Olaf Scholz | Chancellor | Law |
| Germany | Robert Habeck | Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Action | Philosophy, German, Philology |
| Germany | Christian Lindner | Minister of Finance | Political Science |
| Germany | Annalena Baerbock | Foreign Minister | Political Science, Law |
| Germany | Christine Lambrecht | Defence Minister | Law |
| Germany | Karl Lauterbach | Minister of Health | Medicine, Health Policy & Management |
| Germany | Svenja Shulze | Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development | German Studies, Political Science |
| France | Emmanuel Macron | President | French Literature, Piano Studies, Philosophy |
| France | Elisabeth Borne | Prime Minister | Civil Engineering, MBA |
| France | Bruno le Maire | Minister of the Economy and Finance | French Literature |
| UK | Boris Johnson | Prime Minister | Classics |
| UK | Rishi Sunak | Chancellor of the Exchequer | Politics, Philosophy & Economics |
| UK | Ben Wallace | Defence Minister | Military school |
| UK | Liz Truss | Foreign Minister | Politics, Philosophy & Economics |
| UK | Kwasi Kwarteng | Minister for Business, Energy, and Clean Growth | Classics and History |
| UK | Sajid Javid | Health Secretary | Economics and Politics |
| UK | Penny Mordaunt | Minister for Trade Policy | Philosophy |
| UK | Nadhim Zahawi | Chancellor of the Exchequer | Chemical Engineering |
| UK | Dominic Raab | Deputy Prime Minister | Law |
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2 Comments
Didact, thank you for putting this together, I found it time well spent to listen.
I do have a question about higher education in the Usa compared to other systems. I wonder if the disparity of intellectual capabilities at the top is worse then the indicates.
In a US university, a spot solid quarter of an undergraduate program is humanities studies, eg something around communications, arts, music, light weight history, philosophy introduction, ect.
If your degree is a soft skills / non technical program, you can increase that to three quarters of the program.
At the graduate level it’s more focused.
Do the Russian/Chinese/Indian university systems these leaders come from also have this level of humanities in their technical degrees?
As you mentioned in an email, I answered your question later in the podcast, but to make it a bit more concrete:
No, the Russian/Chinese/Indian education systems are much, MUCH more focused. If you do a 5-year degree in mathematics at a Russian university, for instance, you get a Master’s degree in maths out of it at the end, and you spend basically all 5 years doing very, very serious maths. One of my best friends did just that, and she is technically MORE highly qualified in mathematics than I am, since she had to write a dissertation in the subject – I never had to do that, even though I have a Master’s in financial mathematics.
The same is true for students at Indian universities – their programs can run for up to 5 years of education, and you come out of it with a specialised degree. Now, as I understand it, the first two years of that degree program involves a core curriculum that everyone at an IIT takes at the same time – and it ALL involves the same stuff, regardless of whether you want to do Physics, Mathematics, or Engineering, you still study the same foundational materials, and all of it is hard science and maths.
Only if you study a pure humanities program, does the curriculum involve purely humanities subjects. My understanding is that, at the elite level, the Indian system of education is still heavily influenced by the old Soviet system – the Soviets literally provided the textbooks for many of the original IITs and funded the construction of at least one of them. So you get much more focus from day one on your chosen field of specialisation.
In their technical degrees, though, the Russians and Indians do not mess around. There is none of this nonsense that you have in the USA, where you can major in Maths or Physics and minor in something stupid like English or Psychology or Spanish.