The Arrogance of Power & Presumed Truth

The last item on my recent list of most disliked things is the arrogance of power or presumed truth. It didn’t take long after becoming a political science major in 1971 to encounter the concept of the arrogance of power. In the late 60s and early 70s there were few, if any, college campuses in America that didn’t have an ongoing discussion about The Arrogance of Power, a 1966 book written by Senator J. William Fulbright. It’s eerie how its words, written two years after America entered the war in Vietnam, echo 40 years later. A couple of quotes will catch the theme:

§ "[The arrogance of power is defined as] the tendency of great nations to equate power with virtue and major responsibilities with a universal mission. The dilemmas involved are pre-eminently American dilemmas, not because America has weaknesses that others do not have but because America is powerful as no nation has ever been before, and the discrepancy between her power and the power of others appears to be increasing."

§ “There are two Americas. One is the America of Lincoln and Adlai Stevenson; the other is the America of Teddy Roosevelt and the modern superpatriots. One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is self-critical, the other self-righteous; one is sensible, the other romantic; one is good-humored, the other solemn; one is inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate, the other filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious and the other arrogant in the use of great power.”

§ "[P]ower tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations - to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image. Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence. Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God's work."

The purpose of this posting is not to draw parallels to Iraq or to compare Lyndon Johnson and George Bush. My focus is on the arrogance that can, and so often does, accompany power of any kind. People in power have one hell of a time avoiding the tendency to manifest their presumed superior virtue in an overbearing manner. Too often, like Jake and Elwood Blues, they’re on a mission for God.

In American politics we’ve seen it at home and abroad. How far back in American history do we have to go to find an administration, be it Republican or Democrat, that didn’t bring us some scandal involving the abuse of power within its ranks? Richard Nixon is probably the poster child for the arrogance of power in domestic politics. He was so sure of his superior virtue that obeying the law meant little to him. There’s no question that American power is substantial and that it can be put to beneficial use in world affairs, but the potential for harmful use is equally present. The only way to avoid the latter is to continually guard against arrogance.

Once again, I’m struck by the similarity between political and religious powerbrokers. Any religion that claims to be superior to others in terms of knowing the absolute truth about God, creation, salvation and heaven is likely to manifest arrogance in some manner. For over 20 years I was an active leader in the LDS Church, a denomination that still proudly proclaims itself to be “the one and only true and living church” on the face of the earth. Anyone who can utter those words had better guard against the character-warping arrogance that can’t be far behind. When I left that church I merged into another one with precisely the same claim – evangelical Christianity. Their mantra is perfectly linear: if you’re not one of us, then you’re not right with God, and that means you’re not saved, and that means you’re damned. Admittedly, there are evangelicals and Latter-day Saints who carry their message to the world with compassion and without arrogance. But, trying to keep arrogance out of any message of exclusive rightness is like trying to keep spilled red wine from staining the carpet. You can do it, but you’d better keep an abundant supply of stain remover close at hand and you must act quickly and decisively at the first drop.

Tying back to the last post, I’m struck by the observation that most arrogant people tend to be mean-spirited; they’re not pleasant people to be around. As with the mean-spirited, the arrogant are inwardly weak and insecure people who are trying to protect themselves from the things they fear. Arrogance and mean-spiritedness are almost always abusive. If either happens to avoid abuse, they’re still wearisome, at best. Who would dispute that humility is one of the most admired character traits? If you had to choose to spend a lifetime with either a humble person or an arrogant person, who would you choose? I dare say, only the arrogant would choose the arrogant.

But, when arrogance is wedded with power, whether it’s economic, military, political or religious power, the stakes go way up. Abuse is almost always the progeny of such a marriage. The arrogance of power, presumed truth or claimed superior virtue is dangerous. The only question is how dangerous; how extensive and how damaging will these people and their institutions of power be. History has given us the answer to that question countless times, and history continues to be written today.

Power and presumed truth aren’t inherently evil by necessity. They just come equipped with huge potential for arrogance and its attendant abuses. Just as sunlight and moisture will promote the growth of healthy plants, they also promote the growth of fungus; and there’s a lot of fungus among us.