Savant's Words

Yes, this is from (if I recall correctly) King's last presidential address at SCLC. Before those comments he said that we had to begin more and more to call into the question the ENTIRE social order, and that meant calling CAPITALISM into question. But he was also saying that he was going there by his own route, not by the path of Marxism-Leninism.

-Savant

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If you are philosophically inclined, you might check out Rufus Burrow's GOD AND HUMAN DIGNITY: THE PERSONALISM, THEOLOGY AND ETHICS OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. There's also a thesis accessible on line written by a brother from the School of Religion at Vanderbilt University (where I studied philosophy). A number of my brother and sister philosophers were talking about it during a professional meeting here in Bmore last December. I read it myself and found it very insightuf (despite some points of disagreement). I think his last name was Seay. I wil look it up and share the info.

 -Savant
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 Speaking of his experience in Scandinavia at the time of his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, King writes: This was, for most of us, our first trip to Scandinavia...We felt we had much to learn from Scandinavia's DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST tradition and from the manner in which they had overcome many of social and economic problems that still plagued for more powerful and affluent nations. In both Norway and Sweden, whose economies are literally dwarfed by the size of our affluence and the extent of our technology, they have no unemployment and no slums. Their men, women and children have long enjoyed FREE MEDICAL CARE and QUALITY EDUCATION. This contrast to the limited, halting steps taken by our rich nation deeply troubled me." (See THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR, p. 259).


-Savant

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Sounds like you--in contrast to Zaius--has actually done some HOMEWORK. Yes, Dr. King DENOUNCED the human rights violations in the Stalinist eastern block and China. But he also denounced the rapaciiousness and exploitation of capitalism, especially unregulated capitalism. His admiration for democratic socialism is unmistably clear. Most scholars don't even seem to debate that fact any more--especially since the publication of previously private papers and letters. King was cautious, however, in expressing his sympathies for democratic socialism. He knew he and the Movement would be redbaited as Communist in this paranoid and politically immature society which can't tell Sweden from the Soviet Union, or Erich Fromm from Joseph Stalin. KIng didn't want to jeopardize the Movement, but he was clearly in favor of social democracy. On quite a few occasions he simply SAID SO.

-Savant

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And actually, Sina's not exactly correct that the white community is in AS bad a shape as the Black. But the white standard of living is certainly declining, Their umemployment level is not as bad as ours. Even their middle class has greater resources than ours. They certainly don't suffer anything like the abuse of police and judicial system as we do. But their living conditions are WORSENING, so much so that they're getting to be more receptive to talk about CLASS inequality than they've been up till now. Someone on MSNBC reported some polls that show that 75% of African-Americans and 85% of white American feel that there is too much class inequality, too much wealth concentrated in too few hands, and that there's a need for greater incoe equality. What's interesting is that the report said that this attitude among Blacks has existed for a LONG TIME, whereas among whites THIS MUCH dispproval of he economic order of things is a much more recent development. I wish I knew or could remember the source. An elder who was a university student in the late 1960s told me that while In Baltimore in 1967, Dr. King said to a group of Black folk something to the effect that: "The difference between us and our bemused white brethren is not what some of you think. It's not that they're free and we're not. It's that we KNOW we're not free, while they think they are." Perhaps, capitalism is now giving our "bemused white brethren" a WAKE UP CALL!!!

 -Savant
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In short, Lupito is GORGEOUS.

-Savant

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In light of this, i sometimes wonder if Malcolm and Martin wouldn't have gotten together if both had lived at least another 3--5 years. I seem to recall that James Cone records that they were feeling out the possibility of working together on some level. Some communication was beginning. But then Malcolm was killed. There were differences between them that would not simply disappear. But they might have found some practical common grounds (at least involving mutual support) for working together. This would have made that fascist punk J. Edgar Hoover crap in his pants. And it might have advanced the movement much further. Yes, BOTH men were anti-capitalist, though not Marxist. And both were exploring social alternatives, and thinking about the interrelatedness of of racial oppression and economic exploitation. But Malcolm x moved further than did Dr. King on the issue of the liberation of women. I think King would have caught up, but had not done so at the time he was slain. if we could have kept both of them until at least 1970, and kept their movements alive, how different might history be?

-Savant

http://www.globalresearch.ca/creating-the-world-we-want-knowing-what-we-oppose/5370214


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There are ;elements of Marx's ideas which King accepted, but his foundational philosophical position was PERSONALISM. Personalism is a kind of philosophical idealism, while marxism is a kind of materialism. Those opposed metaphysical perspectives would have made it just about impossible for King to be a Marxist if he wanted to. Of course, you can accept SOME ideas coming from a different perspective as Seneca, a Stoic, could accept SOME Epicurean ideas. But those are the ideas that are compatible with your own philosophical framework. In particualr, Marx helped King be aware (as many middle class civil rights leaders were not) of the economic or class oppression, and the interconnectedness of racial oppression and economic exploitation--which is more blatant in the South than anywhere else in America 

-Savant
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 Dr. King & Global Justice: Univ of Oslo Lecture While in Scandinavia to receive the Nobel Prize, Dr. King made the following remarks about the fight against poverty as a global fight: "The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vsst resources of wealth to develop the undeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for "the least of these." Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that men are made in the image of God and that they are souls of infinte metaphysical value, the heirs of a legacy of dignity and worth. If we feel this as a profound moral fact, we cannot be content to see men hungry, too see men victimized with starvation and ill health when we have the means to help them. The wealthy nations must go all out to bridge the gulf between teh RICH MINORITY and the POOR MAJORITY." (THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., P.261; speech given on December 11, 1964) Same struggle, both domestically & globally.

 -Savant
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