Sixgun wrote:
I'm sure we all have lots of stories but more often than not, people with big educations think they are something special. That's why Stalin liquidated everyone with more than an 8th grade education.
Stalin liquidated those he saw as a possible threat. Education is always a threat to totalitarian governments and totalitarian religions (they replace it with brainwashing).
Sixgun wrote:
In today's world, if you don't have a degree, your not going too many places, but why does arrogance come with the degree?
Easy. Why does a POG paper-pusher in the Air Force swagger around and think he is something, while the SF types tend to be quite and laid back and not prone to brag?
Why does the rookie cop act tough and brash and push people around, and the older cop is often polite and well liked by (honest) people he interacts with?
When your confidence is in knowing your strengths and weaknesses, possibilities and limitations, when you have proven yourself to yourself, you have no need to prove yourself to others.
When your confidence and perceived strength and worth are tied up in a position, and ability, a job, a uniform, a rank, a title, or a piece of paper, then you judge everyone else based on what it is that you feel makes you great, and despising others because they do not have that thing that your self-image revolves around only makes you feel more confident and more superior.
This is especially the case with formal education as a lot of educational institutions tend toward elitism. It is something that must be fought against by those who recognize it, and while this attitude can be seen easily in education (and it is also easy for people to represent people who gain advantage due to their degrees, even if they are fine people) it can also be see in all aspects of life. I have known soldiers and police officers who felt that anyone who did not wear the uniform was beneath their notice, truck drivers who thought that the ability to drive a truck made them too good to associate with anyone but teamsters, people whose parents' money made them superior to everyone else, and lots of people who viewed skill in whatever particular hobby they enjoyed to be the criteria by which to judge the worth of all others.
To be fair, I have also seen quite a bit of elitism against people with degrees from those who do not have them as well. As an example, there is an attitude among some preachers in the Southern US (and they can be found in most other parts of the country as well) of pride in ignorance. Now you can be well educated with or without a degree, but to be willfully ignorant is inexcusable, especially for someone who is to be providing guidance to others.