Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men seek to perpetrate an unjust ‘status quo’, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.
– Martin Luther King Jr
The more I read of Dr. King’s words, the more impressed I become with his timeless wisdom, intellect and courage. On this day when we remember the man, it’s very important to appreciate two things. First, while MLK was a peaceful man, he was unquestionably a fierce revolutionary against the prevailing status quo. While his cause and struggle look so obvious now, in his day many segments of American society considered him the enemy, including the U.S. government. For example, we now know that the FBI actually wrote him a letter suggesting he commit suicide.
As such, beyond his eloquent words, his message of love and a relentless fight for justice, we must also remember that the power structure was very much against the man and everything he stood for. Indeed, the reason “the state” is almost always on the wrong side of history, is because “the state” is typically nothing more than a collection of self-serving entrenched interests battling to preserve their wealth and power at all costs. All too often, such costs are the well being of the population in general. This is the situation we once again face in 2017.
To start, I want to share a post I wrote in 2013, titled, Martin Luther King: “Everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was Legal”. Here are a few excerpts:
Even if you have read Martin Luther King’s celebrated “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” I insist you read it again. For those that have never read it, the inspired prose may very well change your life. The letter’s message is eternal and extraordinarily relevant in the current global struggle of the 99.9% against the criminality, corruption and oppression of a very small, but very powerful 0.01%. One of the key tactics this tiny minority uses is to claim that their immoral deeds are “legal.” He spends much of his time in the letter outlining the distinction between “just laws” and an “unjust laws,” and one of the key points he makes that we should all keep close to our hearts and minds in these trying times is:
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers.
I also think it’s important to recognize that many of his contemporaries referred to his tactics as “extremist,” very similar to how the term “terrorist” is used currently to demonize public dissent in America.
After reading that post, read the following: The Full Letter Written by the FBI to Martin Luther King Has Been Revealed.
Taken together, one thing becomes crystal clear. The state is almost never interested in what is right. Rather, the state is primarily interested in what most benefits the status quo, because the state is just a collection of powerful human beings. While the state is always somewhat corrupt, from time to time it gets so corrupt that a dismantling of the status quo is necessary to save the population at large. This has always historically been true, and it is true today.
The status quo never changes anything without a fight. The best way to honor Martin Luther King’s legacy is to adhere to his principals. If he were alive today, he would most certainly be as appalled and disgusted at his own government’s behavior as he was in the 60’s. We should be too.
R.I.P. Dr. King
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