Monday, January 17, 2022

MLK: "We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing-oriented' society to a 'person-oriented' society"

Martin Luther King Jr said: 

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” 


From “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech, given at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City, April 4, 1967

As "content in context" is important, you can listen to and read the full text of this speech here -> https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm

Martin Luther King, Jr. Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence
Martin Luther King, Jr. "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence"


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