It’s Martin Luther King Day here in the US. So here are some thoughts from the man, from an assortment of his writings, that seem to me especially appropriate today.
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon … which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Now that we’ve had this serious moment, go take a look at Yo, Is This Racist, if you haven’t already. It’s fucking hilarious.
NWO, you do know that MLK (and civil rights activists in general) were met with state violence, and vigilante violence, and MLK still preached nonviolence?
The MRM, by contrast, has been met with … some people making jokes about them online, and quite a few MRAs have responded with threats and talk of violence.
NWO
I’ve missed you Please give more to your “book ‘o” learin”.
O I know you are oppressed….Much more then these men ever were http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LXK6TG/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title
We all feel so sad for you.
In the end mra’s are really split between nice guys.
http://standyourground.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=4227f83e2e7ff4e49605c4ec74d8ca54&topic=22597.0
There’s a commenter on that page whose screename is Neoteny? Pedobear for the win!
@David Futrelle
“NWO, you do know that MLK (and civil rights activists in general) were met with state violence, and vigilante violence, and MLK still preached nonviolence?”
Who would know better about decades of State violence than men? After too many men have their children kidnapped, are falsely imprisoned, have their unborn children killed, are kicked out of their homes, are denied employment, education, sports for being men.
When even the mention of such injustices are met with derision and more hatred instead of compassion and sympathy. When all State funding, agencies, corporate and private charity goes to half the population who call themselves victims, while the other half suffers languishing in poverty. When half the population recieves help for any criminal activity while the other half is harshly punished.
When half the population is continually portrayed as angels and victims no matter the circumstances, while the other half are continually portrayed as devils on matter the cicumstances. When the half that are portrayed as angels always have the final say in all matters and give only lip service, misinformation and they determine what is oppressive. Eventually, the well of nonviolent activism runs dry. And the devils will hate the angels.
Really? MLK and other civil rights activists organized boycotts, marches, mass demonstrations in Washington. They engaged in consistent real-world activism for years and years, at great personal cost.They were met with fire hoses and dogs; civil rights workers and little girls in church were killed by racist white vigilantes. Somehow MLK kept to his message of nonviolence.
What sort of “activism” has the MRM engaged in? An online petition or two? Some harassment of individuals? Have you guys organized any marches? Any real, focused boycotts?
How can the “well of nonviolent MRM activism run dry” if you guys haven’t even started digging it?
NWO, if women are as awesome as you say they are, I’d have a decent job by now. All I’d have to do is write “I have boobs” on my CV and bam! I’m president of everything!
NWO: Black people were enslaved, kept from voting, legally confined to inferior schools/libraries/trains/water fountains/everything fucking else, and lynched. They somehow managed to be nonviolent. You can manage it too.
Did you try crying in the street? 9 times out of 10, that works.
@ NWOSlave
What (non-internet) activism have you, personally, participated in?
What have you, personally, done to remedy the injustices that you see?
How far would you go, in terms of non-violent activism?
Recently a man shot dead 8 people in a salon, one of the victims being his ex wife. Was he a terrorist? A murderer? A scumbag? How do you feel about him?
re Molotov Cocktails: There are ways to improve them, esp. when the target is an armored vehicle.
🙂
darkside cat: The use of “Cocktail” was a joke. They used wine/liquor bottles to hold the gasoline (as well as the additives to make it sticky), and Molotov was the person they wanted to deliver them too (see Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact): It was reaction to the comments of Molotov that the Soviets were sending aid/food to the Finns.
Alcohol doesn’t burn hot enough, nor long enough, to be an effective weappon against anything but people. Even an automobile will survive (unless the windows are broken). Gasoline will burn hot enough to kill people inside a car, and ignite secondary flammables in vehicles that aren’t sealed against it.
And, in the event that it doesn’t, it is your duty as a feminist and Modern Woman(tm) to falsely accuse the dude. You can’t leave these immune motherfuckers to roam the streets at will!!
I laughed at “Yo, Is This Racist?” until I hurt myself. The wittiest thing I’ve seen all year. And educational!
No mention of Martin Luther cheating on his wife?
Emily: Why should it be mentioned?