An Eye for An Eye…

In the United States, today is the national holiday named for Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of the most influential voices of the last century, leading a movement that changed the face of the country, shifting laws and public opinion alike. He advocated most prominently for racial equality, but he was much more than that; in political views, he was a democratic socialist, and he supported various social welfare programs, among many other things.

But most importantly, he knew how to get his message across. He knew that the best method for making advances was to convince as many people as possible that your position was correct, and that the best method of doing that was to be better than your opponents. Nonviolent protest works because it is nonviolent. To stand silently as your opponents verbally and physically attack you is to show the world that you are better than they are; that you are not just another group trying to shout and intimidate your way into power, that your principles are important enough to you that you are willing to take vitriol and abuse to stand for them. And once the world sees that, people will take your side.

Martin Luther King Jr. firmly held to the idea that the only way to beat your enemy is to make them your friend. His philosophy can be summed up in the phrase “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” Retribution for past wrongs is often called ‘justice’, but what it really is, is the continuation of a cycle of violence and pain, and the only hope of stopping this cycle is for someone to put their foot down and refuse to pursue revenge themselves.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

…

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

-From Martin Luther King's famous “I Have A Dream” speech, given at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., on the 28th of August, 1963.

But his dream is yet to be realized. Worse, many of the people who claim his legacy have turned away from the very values he held most dear. So many modern activists wield hatred as a weapon, and espouse it as a virtue. For so many, it is no longer the dream to have white and black people eating together in brotherhood, but rather to have white people serve food to black people and then submit themselves in prostration for the deeds of their ancestors. Modern ‘social justice’ is no longer pursued for equality, but for revenge. And just as holding yourself above your opponents sways the public to your side, fighting fire with fire and stooping to the cruelty that your opponents display pushes public opinion away.

This non-egalitarian social justice and the rise of Donald Trump are two components in the cycle of retribution, and if our course is not corrected, things are only going to get worse.

The world is going to go blind.