The Politically Incorrect Truth About MLK

[Aquila King]

Quote

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, let’s look at some of the things he said challenged capitalism and are left out of most history books.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/21/11-most-anti-capitalist-quotes-martin-luther-king-jr

This is why MLK is one of my greatest heroes ^

[Piney]

5 minutes ago, Aquila King said:

• “You can’t talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can’t talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You’re really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism.” – Speech to his staff, 1966.
•  

I agree with this 100 percent. But as welfare profiteers, I'm sure Cory Booker and friends won't. 

[Aquila King]

 

[Aquila King]

Btw, I'm not saying that you can't support MLK's Civil Rights activism without supporting these other things, cause clearly you can. 

Just pointing out this other aspect of his political activism that's often overlooked by most mainstream outlets.

[Hankenhunter]

15 minutes ago, Piney said:

I agree with this 100 percent. But as welfare profiteers, I'm sure Cory Booker and friends won't. 

Thanks for the heads up about Booker. Did some research. Just another red dog Democrat. You were right. 

[Habitat]

18 minutes ago, Aquila King said:

The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them.

MLK went on an excursion into fiction there, one must say. Too silly for words, just goes to show, even a great man can be prey to mistaken beliefs.

[Hankenhunter]

3 minutes ago, Habitat said:

MLK went on an excursion into fiction there, one must say. Too silly for words, just goes to show, even a great man can be prey to mistaken beliefs.

How so?

[Piney]

4 minutes ago, Hankenhunter said:

Thanks for the heads up about Booker. Did some research. Just another red dog Democrat. You were right. 

Told yah so. 

[Habitat]

15 minutes ago, Hankenhunter said:

How so?

Simple, the idea that eating other people was the way of human survival, except in the most rare and dire of circumstances, as an ongoing proposition, suggests a complete ignorance of the dynamics of predator/prey dynamics, in any ecological setting. And that when the "prey" humans are all outside the tribal group. If they are also inside, then the population collapse will be swift and terminal. The "tribe that ate itself", not even credible as a bad movie.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Habitat

[Aquila King]

13 minutes ago, Habitat said:

MLK went on an excursion into fiction there, one must say. Too silly for words, just goes to show, even a great man can be prey to mistaken beliefs.

Most everyone can agree that cannibalism is completely unnecessary, as there's more than enough regular food necessary to feed the masses. No one has to die so that others survive.

The same is true with poverty. There's more than enough wealth to put an end to poverty. No one has to live in poverty while others live privileged.

I believe that was what he meant, more so then in the exact literal sense.

[spartan max2]

I already knew this about him, he also had communist friends.

It does not make me think any less of him, because I respect people with different views then me.  

It is no surprise to me that in the civil rights era many black activist had communist/socialist ties and sympathies, those ideologies promised equality for their race when their current society seemed bent on refusing that equality. 

However, I do not think socialism works well most of the time, our society uses some aspects of socialism, but I think when took to it's fullest idealized version socialism does not work. 

Capitalism has needed some tweaks along the way but overall it has caused the most prosperity for the largest amount of people of any system in history. 

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by spartan max2

[Imaginarynumber1]

4 minutes ago, Aquila King said:

Most everyone can agree that cannibalism is completely unnecessary, as there's more than enough regular food necessary to feed the masses. No one has to die so that others survive.

The same is true with poverty. There's more than enough wealth to put an end to poverty. No one has to live in poverty while others live privileged.

I believe that was what he meant, more so then in the exact literal sense.

It could have been, but realistically, anthropology was still in its infancy at the time. Even today, with all the strides made and everything we've learned, there are still tons of myths about human evolution/culture that many still believe. So it's not totally outside of the realm of possibility that he actually believed in "cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, etc"

[Aquila King]

8 minutes ago, Imaginarynumber1 said:

It could have been, but realistically, anthropology was still in its infancy at the time. Even today, with all the strides made and everything we've learned, there are still tons of myths about human evolution/culture that many still believe. So it's not totally outside of the realm of possibility that he actually believed in "cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, etc"

Yeah, that's a good point. 

I always just took it as an analogy essentially, but I suppose that could be the case as well...

[Imaginarynumber1]

5 minutes ago, Aquila King said:

Yeah, that's a good point. 

I always just took it as an analogy essentially, but I suppose that could be the case as well...

I'm pretty hungry now, too

[Aquila King]

 And now we have this:

 

[Myles]

MLK did lots of great things.   His full beliefs should not be an obstacle.   Just like Trumps. 

[Habitat]

Just now, Myles said:

MLK did lots of great things.   His full beliefs should not be an obstacle.   Just like Trumps. 

Of course, people do get idealized beyond reality, though, and King would have well known that.  A shame that old LBJ got distracted by Vietnam, the 60's could have seen greater things happen with those ideas promoted by King..

[Hankenhunter]

1 hour ago, Piney said:

Told yah so. 

That's just mea....ok, I deserved that. *stomps off grumbling*

[+and-then]

12 minutes ago, Habitat said:

Of course, people do get idealized beyond reality, though, and King would have well known that.  A shame that old LBJ got distracted by Vietnam, the 60's could have seen greater things happen with those ideas promoted by King..

He was writing those things well into the launch of Johnson's "GREAT SOCIETY"  Hundreds of billions later and what do we have to show for the effort?

[Hankenhunter]

1 hour ago, Habitat said:

Simple, the idea that eating other people was the way of human survival, except in the most rare and dire of circumstances, as an ongoing proposition, suggests a complete ignorance of the dynamics of predator/prey dynamics, in any ecological setting. And that when the "prey" humans are all outside the tribal group. If they are also inside, then the population collapse will be swift and terminal. The "tribe that ate itself", not even credible as a bad movie.

I would suggest that he was guilty of a little poetic licence as a metaphor,  and that all politicians indulge in it to make their points. 

[Habitat]

Just now, Hankenhunter said:

I would suggest that he was guilty of a little poetic licence as a metaphor,  and that all politicians indulge in it to make their points. 

My gut feeling is he may have thought it a reality of the dim distant past. Whatever the case, it is literally, incredible, so really doesn't help the case. I don't think it a blemish on his legacy, at all, we all say dumb things, it's just a case of keeping it to the bare minimum !

[Hankenhunter]

1 hour ago, Imaginarynumber1 said:

I'm pretty hungry now, too

Users avatar checks out.

[Hankenhunter]

Just now, Habitat said:

My gut feeling is he may have thought it a reality of the dim distant past. Whatever the case, it is literally, incredible, so really doesn't help the case. I don't think it a blemish on his legacy, at all, we all say dumb things, it's just a case of keeping it to the bare minimum !

That I can agree on. 

[Habitat]

9 minutes ago, and then said:

He was writing those things well into the launch of Johnson's "GREAT SOCIETY"  Hundreds of billions later and what do we have to show for the effort?

Only hundreds of Billions ? Small beer in the context of the national debt.

[Hankenhunter]

15 minutes ago, and then said:

He was writing those things well into the launch of Johnson's "GREAT SOCIETY"  Hundreds of billions later and what do we have to show for the effort?

Good read all the way through.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Society

Edited January 22, 2019 by Hankenhunter