Education sans morality

"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." — Theodore Roosevelt

They loot and plunder us, receiving lavish privileges in return, and then justify it all as "politics." They, standing on our taxes and the treasury, oppress us, both directly and systematically, all in the name of national interest. They, in return for paid patronage, fatalistically justify our agonising plight, much like their peers did in medieval times under the pretext of the Divine Right of Kings. They are paid otherwise, but they authenticate barbaric powers and unjust practices and call it the imperative of justice. They claim to represent the public yet trade their souls to sing the oppressor's hymn. They enslave us and still call themselves our servants. They loot ailing people of their hard-earned bucks and call it a grand service to humanity.

Yet all of them take pride in their education, moralities, intellect and contributions. Though this paradox may not be peculiar to our society, the extent to which it operates could rarely find a parallel in other parts of the world. What does this paradox suggest? Does our education system instil morality and integrity? If yes, where does it go in practical life, and why do we not differentiate between right and wrong? If it doesn't add to morality, who and what does our education ultimately serve? Or are each of us made to cultivate personalised sets of theoretical and practical moral standards, flexible enough to be adjusted with personal interests?

A neutral force, a great equaliser, and one of legitimate society's most sought-after tools for bringing people out of their Hobbesian, pre-government chaotic 'war of all against all' - where life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" due to competition, fear and glory-seeking, and would lead to constant conflict and the absence of justice or culture - education nevertheless yields inclusive outcomes only when morally pursued. That is, the means employed to educate people largely depend on the ends - the legitimacy and intent of the stakeholders in a socio-political setting. The societies with legitimate and inclusive authorities tend to truly pursue it, essentially equipping subjects with authentic knowledge, organic intellect and integrity. For them, education epitomises, besides knowledge and skills, inquisitiveness, critical thinking and how to responsibly act vis-à-vis the greater good of others.

However, the ones with questionable stakes and interests selectively educate people to ultimately complement the stakes of the powerful. That is, the people in societies, defined and directed in the service of the powerful, are either not educated, selectively educated or essentially educated sans morality in a manner that cultivates an exclusive 'I' over 'we' mentality, greed, megalomania, survival of the fittest and wild competition.

The societies that educate without ethical checks produce improvised, clever and complicit devils that, as they are wired, sell their skills and add to and abet the brute interests of an exclusive few and lead to the direct and systematic engineering of social destruction and manipulation. Also, ironically enough, selective education in line with the agenda of the powerful cultivates narcissistic and complicit tendencies among most of the educated lot.

Today, most of our educated lot remorselessly, yet justifiably, plunder people on different pretexts, prostrating to the palaces of the powerful. Most of Pakistan's leadership, elite and educated, despite all educational tags, live in a Hobbesian state of nature. Meanwhile, the morally indifferent are rewarded. The more authority and resources they encroach upon, the more ruthlessness they exhibit towards people.

The few conscientious who hold on to their moralities and stand with truth and the oppressed are branded traitors, national security threats and heretics, or silenced, or expelled from spaces of intellectual discourse.