As you can see on the map above, all of the counties that voted no are in close proximity to North Carolina's largest colleges. Some have been using this to say —"Only uneducated people don't support gay marriage!" But maybe it is only old people that support traditional marriage and the young that support them. Or both. At this point one correction need be made. The image was created before the final count was in, and two of the counties in red—New Hanover and Guilford—eventually swung yes, they did so by the smallest of margins. The final looked more like the picture below.
Due to the quick trigger of the first picture it can seem as little more than a coincidental cheap but even the second picture point out statistical eye brow raisers. The Pew Research Center found in 2010 that support for gay marriage is directly proportional to educational achievement (it's also correlated with age, so it makes sense that students voted no). So does this mean that education equals gay right support and only uneducated people don't support gay marriage! Not necessarily, given higher educations role in shaping worldview the raw data can show how the worldview of higher eduction has shaped the minds of those who walked it's halls.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune in 1897, Karl Marx stated,
"We know that violent measures against religion are nonsense; but this is an opinion: as socialism grows, religion will disappear. Its disappearance must be done by social development, in which education must play a part."
He was speaking to the idea that in the social construction of a community they need not kill religious people but should only educate their children out of a religious worldview. Such ideas of social construction make their home in higher education. Social change by changing the minds of the young is an assumed methodology in education theory.
So what am I saying?
I am saying that historical votes like in North Caroline show us more than why people voted yes or no but show the role of education in a nation's ethical journey. I am saying, Education influenced ethics for education shapes worldview for better or worse.
I am saying, I believe that high school education and more centrally Higher education is a great influence in the Western world today. Only surpassed in it's fundamental influence by the media and entertainment business. Higher education galvanizes what entertainment popularizes. From politics to science to economics to psychology, what is taught on the college campus manifests itself in every aspect of society. Whereas the church used to hold this place, now higher education is the preeminent institution that shapes lives and worldview.
I am saying, regrettably, Karl was right and the church has focused on homeschooling to the neglect of engagement in the forum of ideas among the highest levels of academia.
I am saying, Conservatives in North Carolina may have won the day but they have lost a generation.
In Him
J. Dawson Jarrell
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