Power Without Education

5 February 2003.


It was one of the worst days in American history.  Or, at the very least, it was the saddest day in America during my lifetime.


On that day, Colin Powell, then the Secretary of State, argued for the US invasion of Iraq, which began just a few days later.  Part of his "case" included his assertion that "there can be no doubt Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to produce more, many more."  He also stated there was "no doubt in my mind" that Saddam was working to obtain the key components necessary for producing nuclear weapons.


Those statements directly contradicted what he said in a press statement nearly two years earlier:  that sanctions against Iraq had prevented the development of any "weapons of mass destruction" by Saddam Hussein.  He made similar remarks on other occasions.  


Later, Powell admitted that speech to the UN was a stain on his record.  This begs the question of what, exactly, motivated him to lie to the world.  Was it pressure from the President, George W. Bush, as many have speculated?   Was he somehow influenced by members of the military-corporate complex that would benefit from the invasion?  Or was there some other motive?


Whatever his reasons for making that speech, Powell betrayed many, many people who trusted and admired him until that time.  He also showed, I believe, that failures of the so-called education system are nothing new.

I'm not saying that he's not an intelligent man, and I'm not questioning his leadership abilities.  (How he used those qualities is another story altogether.)  I do think, however, that in spite (or maybe because) of all the time he spent in school, he's not an educated man.


What do I mean by that?  Educated people become self-aware.  They ask questions, with the understanding of who they and we are, and what we've come from.  They learn truths and, when necessary, stand against popular opinion and peer pressure, knowing that, as Socrates said, it's better to have the whole world against you than to be divided against yourself.  This means that they do not lie to themselves and rarely, if ever, need to lie to anyone else.  (The exception might be to save another person's life.) They also know that there is simply no way to morally justify the killing of children and other innocent people, or that such killings are simply a cost of doing business.  


What Colin Powell did on that terrible day was the exact opposite of what I've described in my previous paragraph.  He's said that he wasn't a particularly good student, but that's not the reason for his mendacity.  Rather, he bought into the notion that pleasing those ahead of him in the chain of command was more important than doing what was truly necessary and right.  That mentality got him through his undergraduate days at City College of New York and, later, a graduate program at George Washington University, and up through the military ranks.  


Things have only gotten worse.  At least, in Powell's day, there was the possibility of encountering a teacher or professor who actually challenged him to think critically, as well as various role models who could have helped him to develop an ethical sense.  These days, one simply will not find such things in schools hamstrung by the so-called No Child Left Behind Act and a culture,media and corporate structure shaped by the expectation of blind obedience. 


Some would argue that it's necessary, in the military, to train people to follow orders.  That is true, but if recruits have never been inculcated with a moral sense--whether from their families, communities, houses of worship or simply their own reading and reflection--the expectation that one will unquestioningly follow orders can only lead to disaster.  Look at what happened to Colin Powell.  And look at the ways corporate oligarchs exploit their workers, and how those workers think there is no other way.  


Someone once said that education is our only hope.  Getting rid of a system that values blind obedience and rote skills is our only hope of getting, or helping someone to get, an education. Perhaps then we won't have to see another spectacle like the one we saw on 5 February 2003.