The Enduring Wisdom of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King's birthday is celebrated this year on January 16, 2017.


We live in a far, far different world than it was in April, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. Perhaps we tend to think that a man such as King was merely a man of his time? But, true visionaries speak Wisdom that is timeless.

Yes, King did write about a specific, anguished time in American history. But I find that many of King's writings are startling prescient.

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. think about our world today?

Certainly, he would barely recognize the vast extent of our technology.  WHAT King said about Technology: "Science and technology have enlarged man's body. The telescope and television have enlarged his eyes. The telephone, radio and microphone have strengthened his voice and ears. The automobile and airplane have lengthened his legs. The wonder drugs have prolonged life. . . We have genuflected before the god of Science only to find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties that Science can never mitigate. These transitory gods are not able to save us or bring happiness to the human heart. But in spite of these astounding new scientific developments, the old evils continue and the age of reason has been transformed into an age of terror." --[Strength to Love, 1963].

ON the myth of government being the solution to all our problems: "There are those who seek to convince us that only man is able. In the Renaissance and subsequently the Age of Reason, some men gradually came to feel that God was an unnecessary item on the agenda of life. . . . [Some men] have the strange conviction that by thinking, inventing and governing, they will at last conquer the nagging forces of evil. This idea, sweeping across the modern world like a plague, has ushered God out and escorted man in, and has substituted human ingenuity for divine guidance. But, the old evils continue and the age of reason has been transformed into an age of terror. Selfishness and hatred have not vanished with an enlargement of our educational system, and an extension of our legislative policies " --[Strength To Love, 1963].

ON the fracturing of human connections: "All too many of those who live in affluent America ignore those who exist in poor America; in doing so, the affluent American will eventually have to face themselves with the question, that Adolph Eichmann chose to ignore: How responsible am I to the well-being of my fellows?"

AND, "A riot is the language of the Unheard."

ON our current desire towards Isolationism: "ALL life is interrelated and in a real sense, we are all courting an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." -- "The destiny of the United States is tied up with the destiny of India and every other Nation. Can we stand idly by and not be concerned." --

"Man through his scientific and his technological genius has made of this world a neighborhood. And now we are challenged through our moral and ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood."

In the late 1990's, scientists discovered some proof of the theory of Entanglement-- that when a scientist "pokes a particle, another one far away can instantly respond to the touch -- without any messages passing through space, as if the two particles were one." -[Popular Science, 8/29/15].  Many scientists have come to believe that there is a Consciousness in the Universe that ties everything together. AND so, we are beginning to prove, literally, that Martin Luther King was right!

Finally, ON Hope, a political slogan bandied about a lot by both political sides: " I have become more and more convinced of the reality of a personal God. In the midst of outer dangers, I have felt an inner calm, and known resources of strength, that only God could give. In many instances, I have felt the power of God transforming the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of Hope. God IS a living God."

[Related Postings: "Martin Luther King's Dream", January 15, 2014; "Race in America", August 1, 2013; "The Prophet: Martin Luther King", January 15, 2015; "The Need for Martin Luther King", Jan. 16, 2013; "Remembering Martin Luther King", Jan. 16, 2012; "Martin Luther King", Jan. 16, 2012.]

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