Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
How is it that Martin Luther King, Jr. was so correct and so wrong at the same time? The chain reaction of evil hate begetting hate and wars producing more wars did not plunge us into the abyss. At least not then. Not in the 1960s.
It was not our stopping to love our neighbors, that created social change. Instead, in a very real sense, it was Dr. King's blood tht brought about the legal changes in the United States necessary for us to build a society so much more premised in equality than the one that he left behind. Our nation was poised on the dark abysss of annihilation after his assassination and I'm afraid it was fear that made us take the collective step back represented in integration and the civil rights legislaton of the 1960s.
And we never learned to love our enemies in the Soviet Union. Instead we learned to outspend them. We pressed them financially on every front through proxy wars and an unwinnable arms race until the cracks in their horribly flawed economic model sprung wide open spilling their society and driving the "Union" apart. Again it was fear of the abyss that drove the solution that ended the Cold War with its unending proxy wars.
Even so, aren't we at that impasse again? Have we ever left it? Perhaps resolving our conflicts through fear means that we have never really solved them at all. And now, living in this part of the world, in this nation in particular, where skating to the edge of the abyss holding hatred so close to your heart seem to be the national sport, Dr. King's solution seems to be the only solution. But how do we get to that solution?
As Americans, we can't point to the times when love motivated our social change. Our changes were born out of violence, out of tragedy, out of necessity. Must it be a lesson of "do as we say, not as we do?"
Dr. King's words were inspired by his understanding of the teachings of the Christian prophet. Mohammed's teachings are not so different that Iraqis, Shi'a and Sunni, Arab and Kurd, shouldn't be able to see the wisdom of reconciliation through love and the damage that we do to ourselves and each other through the chain reaction of evil.
But perhaps, YDS brings a westerner's worry to the process here. Since before both Jesus and Mohammed, Arabs were one moment at each other's throat in conflict and the next clasping each other to their breasts in friendship. Perhaps this formative Iraqi state is no different. Perhaps the love is not so far from here after all.
Dr. King would love that to be true.
2 comments:
First! Great observations! And, I find it interesting that the ancestors of MLK are from an area that is closer geographically to Iraq than the U.S. In addition, MLK's ancestors experienced greed, cruelty and hate and from MLK came a message that countered what he would have been considered entitled to espouse.
Great post Marc. It speaks to me in many levels, but mainly in that we are often simultaneously right and wrong. MLK, Jr. had his points. But it takes a magnanimous person a tremendous amount of courage to admit when wrong, and followed through with the requisite valor to admit when wrong, and the humility to fix what he/she broke.
Like the proverbial bull in a china shop, we own Iraq, and she owns us. The divorce will not be forthcoming.
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