When President Obama gave his Nobel acceptance speech in December, he made reference to Dr. King saying that he was there in Oslo as a \u201cdirect consequence of Dr. King\u2019s life work,\u201d and as a \u201ctestimony to the moral force of non-violence.\u201d And yet, the President also spent much of his speech distancing himself from the legacy of non-violence, explaining how we live in a dangerous world full of evil and that as a head of state, he cannot be guided only by the exemplars of non-violence. So, it would seem appropriate as we approach the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, to explore the gulf between the President as a head of state and the legacy of Dr. King.<\/p>\n
President Obama\u2019s Nobel acceptance speech was widely praised by both liberals and conservatives. Conservative columnist David Brooks of The New York Times referred to it as \u201cObama\u2019s Christian Realism.\u201d In fact, the President was very clear saying, \u201cI face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler\u2019s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda\u2019s leaders to lay down their arms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The President\u2019s reasoning seems not only sound but, dare I say it, realistic. On the other hand, the President, without being explicit, suggests that King\u2019s non-violence is idealistic and somehow inapplicable in the real world. None of this non-violent idealism for him, as if the threats and violence faced by the Civil Rights movement were in some way less real than the threats of today.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the President seems to project onto the history of the Civil Rights movement a certainty of the effectiveness of non-violence that did not exist at the time. It was not at all certain that non-violence could be efficacious against the racism in our society. King was often mocked and criticized by more militant elements. Let\u2019s be clear: the violence experienced by blacks was nothing short of terrorism enabled and supported by individuals and institutions throughout our society. This wasn\u2019t the flash-in-the-pan violence that had been experienced for months, years or even decades; it was the systemic and intractable violence of centuries with millions of victims.<\/p>\n
Malcolm X called King a \u201cchump\u201d and said that it was \u201ccriminal\u201d to teach non-violence in the face of violence by whites. Malcolm\u2019s criticism sounds intuitively obvious and, dare I say it, realistic. There was a clear evil in the world and Malcolm said it had to be confronted with force. It would seem that the President has more in common with Malcolm\u2019s realism than with King\u2019s non-violence. Is al Qaeda more intractable than centuries of slavery and racism? Is the President unaware of the effective use of non-violence during WWII? Why, then, the presumption that non-violence could not be effective in certain circumstances?<\/p>\n
Part of the reason for the discrepancy between the President and Dr. King is that nation states really aren’t interested in community or brotherhood or even peace, as much as they may use these words. Nation states and their leaders are interested in acquiring and maintaining their own power and place in the world. President Obama, as difficult as it is for some of us to admit it, is sitting astride the greatest military machine the world has ever known.<\/p>\n
Another reason for the President parting ways with King is that non-violence is more like a spiritual discipline than it is a political platform or foreign policy. Non-violence requires extreme personal moral courage and introspection that are not easily translated into policies. But this does not mean that military intervention is the only or appropriate alternative.<\/p>\n
King\u2019s words echo through time as both a warning and an opportunity nowhere more powerfully than in his last book, \u201cWhere do we go from here: Chaos or Community?\u201d \u201cThe ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie nor establish the truth. Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you cannot murder the hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The genius of Dr. King\u2019s ethic of non-violence is that it is counter intuitive. Non-violence throws us off balance and because it isn\u2019t \u201crealistic,\u201d we don\u2019t expect it. King was a master of spiritual jujitsu, using the violence of his adversary to disable him. Dr. King has passed on his legacy of non-violence to us and we must decide what to do with it. Non-violence is hard work. Let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When President Obama gave his Nobel acceptance speech in December, he made reference to Dr. King saying that he was there in Oslo as a \u201cdirect consequence of Dr. King\u2019s life work,\u201d and as a \u201ctestimony to the moral force of non-violence.\u201d And yet, the President also spent much of his speech distancing himself from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/278"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}