Martin Luther King - Why I Am Opposed To The War In Vietnam; And Its Meaning In An Even More Violent And Evil World That Exists Today

I missed Martin Luther King’s birthday by a few days but wanted to get this up regardless. King has been discussed on here as one of the most profound leaders in human history. I was thinking the other day of who would I actually place as America’s greatest leaders. That’s a hard question. There honestly haven’t been that many on a national stage whose actions were so powerfully impacting to all people. Off the top of my head I thought in no particular order-

1. Martin Luther King
2. William Lloyd Garrison
3. John Brown
4. Thomas Jefferson
5. Thomas Paine
6. Andrew Jackson
7. Mother Jones
8. Henry David Thoreau

People could disagree who belongs on that list but all of these were radicals for change. Radicals for human rights, self-rule, real democracy and democratic economic rights.

While there were many abolitionists, both black and white, and woman and men, it’s arguable that John Brown actually started the war to end slavery. Until him, all abolitionists eschewed violence. And, as Martin Luther King noted, the status quo loves words of nonviolence but once taking back your power becomes a matter of force, you become the threat of society controlled by class & hierarchy.  The state eventually hung Brown.

Mother Jones single-handedly willed untold numbers of men (millions) and their families to stand up for their democratic economic rights against the corporate state. She was merciless and fearless in the face of endless threats against her life by corporations and the state.  She literally gave people their backbone because of her seemingly superhuman internal guidance system of what was right and wrong.  She lived amongst these families as she tirelessly traveled around the country and was on the front line of countless battles for democratic economic rights.  The corporate state labeled her the most dangerous woman in America. In fact, it has been written out of history that the largest armed insurrection in this nation was in the industrial wars (of which Mother Jones was the most powerful force) of Americans fighting for their democratic economic rights against corporate state power. And, those wars had government and corporate-hired mercenaries fighting side-by-side against exploited American citizens.

Andrew Jackson’s name has been smeared repeatedly. Especially recently. He was a populist similar to Paine and Jefferson and waged war against the powerful interests in this nation. His war against the massively corrupt, entitled Bank of the United States (the precursor to the Federal Reserve) was but one example.

Thomas Paine is the father of American democracy. Don’t kid yourself. His writings, of which the major ones are all linked to on this blog, were the topic of every man and woman in this nation. Paine codified the democratic rights of man and gave all people the ideas that were the basis for America’s Enlightenment. Some people believe Paine published as many as one million pamphlets of his Rights of Man. Given how many colonists there were, and how many could read, it would be the most succesful printed document ever published and read in this nation, and maybe the world, on a per capita basis. His views on slavery, women’s rights, human rights and democracy were so far ahead of his time that even today we still are fighting his battles for our own democratic rights and determinism. He died without a country as the state disowned his ideas and him.

I could go on and on. But, Martin Luther King was clearly America’s foremost prophet or cassandra or seer. Maybe more so than anyone else in American history, King understood the power of words. And, by power, I literally do mean physical power. The power of words, when placed in the conscious minds of man, have more potential and eventually kinetic energy than any other known force in the universe. Which, quite frankly, is the reason why the Nazis burned books. And, why we have our own book burnings in the United States. And why class and hierarchy (the status quo) eventually destroys revolutionaries who espouse loving intents, human rights and human dignity. 

Our book burnings in modern corporate capitalist society are much more sinister to recognize than the Nazis. That’s because in a society with some modicum of personal protections, the approaches that Hitler took won’t work. They have to be nuanced and you have to believe your own slavery is your idea.  So it’s wrapped in an American flag, jingoism and brainwashing. Otherwise, humanity will never submit to class & hierarchy’s intent of controlling and exploiting us.  Our book burnings are an educational system that doesn’t serve democracy, including being taught what to think instead of how to think. Which, by the way, corporations and the government are constantly doing as well through endless propaganda, the entire corporate work experience and marketing. Cutting government spending in education, and cutting money for the arts are also forms of book burning. (The ancient Athenians used public money to pay for all people to enjoy the arts)  In order to exploit people, a ruling class needs to keep them ignorant.

In order to hold that capability of a seer or cassandra, one has to appreciate their own inner intuition, their own internal connection to their highest good (understanding of good versus the absence of good aka evil) and the own inner understanding of the forces of evil which seek to subvert that journey. A seer or cassandra has to understand that all truth comes from within. And that the universe eventually kicks back the opposite direction when the balance of life has been lost.

King, regardless of his foibles as a man, clearly spoke from that inner truth and connection.  When I listen to his speeches, it’s completely clear that they come from his highest good. They come completely from his heart. And, that is why he moved and continues to move so many people with his words. And, why his words remain dangerous to the corporate state.

It’s amazing that the state, who ultimately destroyed King, whether it pulled the trigger or not, actually honors this artifically manufactured and cleansed image of him. But, anyone who has read his written words or listened to his speeches knows that there isn’t a corporation, politician or military leader in this nation who holds any of his values as truths. In fact, all class and hierarchy would truly fear his words. Not the cleansed or manufactured view of King.

What has happened over the past 50 years has made King’s words even more prescient. With Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama’s major policy initiatives that deregulated class-based, private, for-profit capital, including the military-industrial complex, the exploitation King talked about has reached a dystopian level of power that I’m not sure I ever could have imagined without experiencing it myself.

For me, King’s Vietnam speech is the most stirring in its truths. Especially how they relate to today. Truths that most Americans remain willfully-ignorant to today. Which is why we are still in the bargaining phase of dealing with the massive social, emotional, spiritual and physical violence of the corporate state machine.

If you haven’t listened to this speech in its entirety, or even if you have but it has been some period of time, I would encourage you to listen to it again.  It is likely the speech that got him killed. The link is here.  Instead of Vietnam, everything King noted is even more applicable to the world today. That includes the exaltation of profit over human life, endless war with the world, corporate exploitation, money and ego’s attachment to its own inanimate, worldy possessions of money, property, etc as more important than people. Or, for that matter, all life as it pertains to capitalism’s endlessly exploitative requirements.