Tonight we began our discussion of morality with a few MLK quotes:
"On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But Conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'We ain't goin' study war no more.' This is the challenge facing modern man.
- Remaining Awak Through a Great Revolution (March 31st, 1968)
"Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, and economic change. ... Now a lot of us are preachers, and all of us have our moral convictions and concerns, and so often have problems with power. There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites - polar opposites - so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with the denial of love. It was this misintepretation that caused Nietzsche, who was a philosopher of the will to power, to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same miinterpretation which induced Christian theologians to reject the Nietzchean philosophy of the will to power in the name of the Christian idea of love. Now, we've got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on. What has happened is that we have had it wrong and confused in out own country, and this has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience. This is leading a few extermists today to advocate for Negroes the same destructive and conscienceless power that they have justly abhorred in whites. It is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times."
- Where do we go from here? 1967
Another question I think isn't asked often enough is "Is it useful?"
ReplyDeleteMany people participate in actions that make them feel good about their cause, but do no real good. Not every action one makes for the sake of good actually results in good.
Lincoln freed the slaves, but gave them no means to support themselves, and for years, blacks were forced to live as slaves, even when they were legally free, because there was no way for them to actually provide for themselves.
There is a right way, and a wrong way, to do the right thing. Does the action you wish to do actually achieve a good result? Or does it instead cause more harm than good? Are you able to seperate yourself from the situation enough to see it objectively in the first place?