I recently listened to a few of Martin Luther King JRs speeches and I couldn't help wishing that a voice a like his existed for todays generation. Of course, if King were alive today he would be labeled anti-American. I think it is interesting that we have a holiday honoring this man in our country and yet no one is encouraged to actually read or listen to what he said. He was pro-revolution, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialism and American militarism and he would have opposed every military action that the executive branch of the US government has engaged in since Viet Nam, including the current war on terrorism. I could go on, but those are just some quick thoughts.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just."
Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin [applause], we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Beyond Vietnam
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just."
Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin [applause], we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Beyond Vietnam
redbstrd:
Yep, he's the man.
belllla:
Wow. I never thought about it that way. You're right though. I'd hate to see what would be made of him in modern day media if he were alive and currently as active as he was back then. I know there are other people in our country who believe as strongly as he did with such conviction . . . I just don't know if it's possible to get people to PAY ATTENTION. I'm amazed by what this country is willing to ignore. 