Martin Luther King was, in addition to being an icon of the movement toward civil rights, a champion of non-violent action to effect cultural and societal change.
We can profit greatly from his non-violent approach to the violent bigotry and hatred he faced in the culture of the United States in the 1960’s. However, in order to do that we must first understand what violence looks like in the early 21st century.
While the same brand of bigotry and hatred Dr. King faced has never disappeared from the shadows of our culture there are some fundamental societal changes that have made it possible for them to re-emerge into the societal mainstream. So what allowed this almost unthinkable shift in our cultural norms to occur?
In My Opinion:
The root of these changes can be found in the historically disproportionate distribution of wealth that currently exists in the United States. The development of the huge, no mammoth, disparity in wealth has resulted in a politics of scarcity.
It is a politic that results in the average person being fearful of losing their piece of the economic pie. One that makes them focus on me and mine verses sharing in the common good for my neighbor and me. These same economic victims of economic violence are inclined to sit out any serious political action that might endanger their economic well being or status out of some misplaced fear of loss. Hence, the election of “The Donald” who promised he could fix everything for them.
This irrational fear of political engagement and responsibility is propagated by a government that is bought and paid for by the wealthiest 1% in the United States and bolstered by a media that is effectively owned and controlled by those same 1%.
Where is the moral outrage from our governmental leaders over the racial violence that is done by even civically allowing a conversation of the building of a wall? Obviously, there is none since the President of OUR United States can brand Mexico as just another s***hole country if he chooses and still be supported by his party to remain in office.
Where is the media’s social responsibility for bring civility to the public square? Obviously it has been sold to the advertising revenue bonanza of anonymous Political Action Committees that will soon be delivered to the detriment of an informed electorate. The only bastion of true news seems to be found in commentaries of late night comedians such as Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers. The only blatant cultural outrage to be heard in the media is coming from the likes of Jimmy Kimmel. So long as it’s not “real” news it is OK for late night, otherwise, I guess it’s just, well you know “fake.”
This is the root of our societal violence. It is a violence that is constantly and subconsciously directed on the middle and lower classes of our society. It is a violence that permeates our sensibilities and allows us to behave in ways that are less than fully human. It allows us to publicly sanction – BY OUR OWN INACTION – the most outrageous behaviors so long as it is not directed at us.
Dr. King would understand this economic violence as blatant racism directed at all people of color unless that color was the same as someone from say Norway.
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
~ Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller
gobblers nob 