{"id":752,"date":"2011-01-17T14:22:06","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T14:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/martin-luther-king-gandhi-thoreau-and-america-today.html"},"modified":"2011-01-17T14:22:06","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T14:22:06","slug":"martin-luther-king-gandhi-thoreau-and-america-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/martin-luther-king-gandhi-thoreau-and-america-today.html","title":{"rendered":"Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Thoreau, and America today"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Martin Luther
\nKing did not come to his conclusions about nonviolence entirely on his own.  <\/span>He had the personal strength to follow
\nthis path, but he also stood in a long noble and very interesting tradition with deep roots in America.  <\/span>King looked at Mahatmas Gandhi as the teacher who first opened his eyes as to what nonviolence could create. Through nonviolent means Gandhi achieved India’s independence
\nfrom British rule.  <\/span>His commitment
\nto nonviolence was not able to bridge the differences between Hindus and
\nMuslims, but it proved capable of winning the freedom of a big part of the
\nworld’s population from colonial rule.<\/p>\n

King was
\ntransformed by reading Gandhi, writing<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

\n

As
\nI read, I became deeply fascinated by his campaigns of nonviolent resistance.
\nAs I delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi, my skepticism concerning the
\npower of love gradually diminished, and I came to see for the first time its
\npotency in the area of social reform.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The
\n‘turn-the-other-cheek’ philosophy and the ‘love-your-enemies’ philosophy, I
\nfelt, were only valid when individuals were in conflict with other individuals;
\nwhen racial groups and nations were in conflict, a more realistic approach
\nseemed necessary. But after reading Gandhi, I saw how utterly mistaken I
\nwas.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Gandhi in turn learned
\ncrucial elements of his strategy from Henry David Thoreau<\/a>.   <\/span>As Gandhi said’ “Thoreau was a
\ngreat writer, philosopher, poet, and withal a most practical man, that is, he
\ntaught nothing he was not prepared to practise in himself. … He went to gaol
\nfor the sake of his principles and suffering humanity. His essay has,
\ntherefore, been sanctified by suffering. Moreover, it is written for all time.
\nIts incisive logic is unanswerable.”<\/p>\n

Martin Luther
\nKing also was similarly influenced and inspired by Thoreau, writing in his Autobiography
\n<\/a> <\/i><\/p>\n

\n

I became convinced that
\nnoncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with
\ngood. No other person has been more eloquent and passionate in getting this
\nidea across than Henry David Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal
\nwitness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Thoreau’s essay
\non Civil Disobedience<\/a><\/i>  is one of America’s greatest gifts to the world. The United States had attacked
\nMexico, seeking to annex large portions of its territory.  <\/span>The reasons was to enlarge the slave
\nstates and killing innocent people was then, as today, acceptable “collateral
\ndamage.”<\/p>\n

The war,
\nAmerica’s first aggressive war against anyone other than the Indian tribes,
\ngenerated an enormous protest movement in the north.   <\/span>Thoreau was one such protester, and when taxed to pay
\nfor the war, refused.  <\/span>He was sent
\nto jail. He wrote On Civil Disobedience <\/i>as a result.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

If one were to
\ntell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign
\ncommodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an
\nado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and
\npossibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a
\ngreat evil to make a stir about it. But when . . . oppression and robbery are
\norganized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other
\nwords, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be
\nthe refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and
\nconquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is
\nnot too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty
\nthe more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but
\nours is the invading army.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Martin Luther
\nKing to Mahatmas Gandhi to Henry David Thoreau: an inspiring lineage of men who
\nwere not perfect because none of us are, but whose shortcomings were dwarfed by their achievements for
\nthe good of humanity.  <\/span><\/p>\n

At this time
\nwhen the energy of violence is rising, when it acts like a drug for a certain
\npercentage of our population who get as high from its energy as a loser on
\nmeth, we need to be very clear that no good will come from this road and stand
\nstrongly against it.  <\/span>I myself am
\nnot quite a pacifist.  <\/span>I will use
\nviolence to defend others.  <\/span>But
\nwhen and if it comes to that, we are caught between one failure and arguably a
\ngreater one, and nothing more.<\/p>\n

This day
\nhonoring Martin Luther King, jr. is a fine one to remind ourselves of these
\nrealities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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