Friday, January 13, 2006
MLK: "Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul."
Martin Luther King, Jr encarcerated in the Birmingham in the cell where he wrote his famour "Letter From Birmingham Jail" on April 16, 1963.
"WE HAVE ALLOWED THE MEANS BY WHICH WE LIVE TO OUTDISTANCE THE ENDS FOR WHICH WE LIVE. So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: "Improved means to an unimproved end." This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern [humanity]. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of [humanity's] nature subjugates the "within," dark storm clouds begin to form in the world.
This problem of spiritual and moral lag, which constitutes modern [humanity's] chief dilemma, expresses itself in three larger problems which grow out of [humanity's] ethical infantilism. Each of these problems, while appearing to be separate and isolated, is inextricably bound to the other. I refer to racial injustice, poverty, and war."
Martin Luther King Jr., in his Nobel Peace Prize address, Dec. 11, 1964.
-Read the entire speech
-Listen to a two-minute excerpt (Requires RealPlayer)
THANKS: sojo.net for the linkups
