Abraham Flexner Quotes
Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education... no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.
Flexner, Abraham. Universities: American, English, German. Oxford University Press, 1930, p. 34.
The comparison of the costs of education and military spending is not just a modern phenomenon. In the middle of the 19th century, the same argument was being made.
Even in democratic America, this has been true. We spend almost any amount of money to give our military the weapons of war that will make them more effective soldiers, but when they return with mental and physical wounds, government money is not so easy to come by to preserve them in good health. Cost is a major consideration in Veterans benefits and care, but weapons expenditures have little restraint. It has been so for many years in many cultures.
In the 18th Century, the Islamic Barbary States combined their religious beliefs for Jihad against non-believers with a classic criminal enterprise--piracy. They would authorize corsairs to outfit ships and attack Christian merchant ships on the high seas. They would capture the ship and the cargo, which would be split with the ruler of the country. The crew and passengers would by “rented out” as slaves until they would be ransomed, the proceeds of which would also be shared. To motivate a larger ransom, the captives were regularly tortured as well as worked almost to death. The Barbary Pirates encouraged the “slaves” to write to their relatives, friends and governments to try and raise the ransom. Individual Christian countries were offered a “treaty” whereby for an annual payment of tribute to the Barbary country, the corsairs of that country would not attack ships flying the flag of the country that paid the tribute. The Christian country had to make 4 different tribute payments to each of the 4 Barbary nations. Most of the European powers were paying the tribute even though some could easily defeat the Corsair navies in a war. The cost of outfitting a fleet for war was much more greater than paying the tribute. The new nation of the United States was good pickings for the Barbary pirates and there was a period of several decades where the Americans had to create a policy to pay tribute or go to war. At different times America did both. Jefferson argued for War rather than pay the blackmail tribute.
At the time all the Arab armies were attacking Israel. Many Arabs joined the assault or evacuated to return with the “victorious” Arab armies. Many others stayed in Israel. The former became the refugees of the area. The latter, are citizens of Israel with the best health and education in the Middle East and the only Arabs who have the freedom of living in a democracy.
To a great extent, the same is true in our modern world.
Abraham Flexner was an American educator, best known for his role in the 20th century reform of medical and higher education in the United States and Canada.
