104 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-MASTERYwhen Jesus Christ was on trial before Pontius Pilate, just after He had
given His famous reply to Pilate's question, "Are you a king?"
In the vernacular of the day, Ford's reply knocked the questioner
cold.
Up until that reply, the lawyer had been enjoying considerable fun
at what he had believed to be Ford's expense, by adroitly displaying his
general knowledge and comparing it with what he inferred to be Ford's
ignorance as to many events and subjects.
That answer spoiled the lawyer's fun!
It also proved once more (to all who had the intelligence to accept
the proof) that true education means mind development, not merely
the gathering and classifying of knowledge.
Ford could not, in all probability, have named the capitals of all the
states of the United States, but he could have, and in fact had, gathered
the "capital" with which to turn many wheels within every state in the
Union.
Education, let us not forget this, consists of the power with which
to get everything one needs, when one needs it, without violating the
rights of others. Ford comes well within that definition, as the fore-
going incident shows.
COMMENTARY
As the example of Henry Ford demonstrates, power is organized knowledge
expressed through intelligent efforts. Let us consider how a Master Mind facilitates
the exercise of power. The current era has been called the Information Age, due in
large part to the ease with which information is transferred through computers at
speeds and in such volume that were unthinkable even a generation ago.
But information is not organized knowledge. In fact, one of the chief complaints
of many people is that they have far more information at their disposal than they
know what to do with. A few minutes surfing the Internet in search of the answer to
a particular question can produce a deluge of conflicting, ambiguous information