Welcome to the new blog. I had a few friends encourage me to start one up and I thought it might be enjoyable to put my thoughts out there to see what kind of response they might generate. I’ve always thought I lived a few years in the future - I had an ICQ number in the low thousands, I created that rate-a-buddy and hot or not sensation back in ‘98, and I am currently reshaping the way we look at public schools over at RateMyTeachers.com, but I’ve been late to the blog party. Well, better late than never. Since today is Martin Luther King Day, I will devote this first entry to the subject of race and MLK himself.
There is only one solution to racism - individualism. From a political perspective, that means granting no distinctions based on race. To judge an individual based on something they cannot control (skin color) is indicative of a failure to use the mind and an attempt to circumvent reality. Be wary of any government action that makes racial distinctions, yet claims itself to be necessary to eradicate racism
Dr. King is a sacred icon in American culture, loved by just about everyone. To question his ethics, motivations, and the possible consequences of his ideas, can easily make sensible people uncomfortable. If one has the courage to look a step beyond King’s best work, the excellent “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” one discovers that ideals King advocated in both his public and private life had little to do with advocating a nation where people would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
What was the content of King’s character? First, King’s adulterous lifestyle is little publicized. Publicly, King decried communism, but kept a roomful of red-sympathizing advisers. But, would a man that lied to his wife and children worry about lying to members of the public? As a preacher, King advocated a lifestyle that he was incapable of leading – and I believe he sought power over other men as a means to compensate for his wounded self-esteem.
King advocated racist measures, such as quotas, redistribution, and reparations, to solve racism. But collectivism begets collectivism, and today power-lusters use the same rhetoric used 40 years ago. If he King were alive today, he would be hard to distinguish from the race-baiting, power-lusting Jesse Jackson.
One final note that beguiles me - Dr. King is hailed as a champion of movements on both the left and right. Republicans and democrats alike attempt to claim him as one of their own. Trust me, King would not be voting for W in 2004. However, many people on the right are afraid to question the motives of the beloved Dr. King because of the myth of his greatness so dominates our culture. Instead, they attempt to shape some of his better quotes to argue their own beliefs. On the other side, people on the left who cherish King and all the associated racist government measures that go along with the movement are typically motivated by guilt, most likely caused by their inability to see the world in a color-blind manner - so they advocate destructive laws supposedly created to eliminate racism. People who blindly support these laws do so out of an emotional need to justify their own confusion about race – it is much easier to blame those problems on someone else. Certainly, racism is alive and well in this country, but in our free and global economy, any individual driven to succeed, black, white, pink, or Michael Jackson, can find a niche, or create their own.