Fair and balanced...

For those who think, in light of recent notes, that I'm a racist, here are a few thoughts that might appease your troubled souls.

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice."
In a 1955 response to an accusation that he was "disturbing the peace" by his activism during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, as quoted in Let the Trumpet Sound : A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr (1982) by Stephen B. Oates.

I recently taught a section on MLK Jr. to my 4th-year Cambodian students. I did so during the holiday. It's good for them to learn about foreign holidays, and it's good for them to learn about other races, because they are inherently a very racist people. We talked about MLK Jr. and what he accomplished - quite amazing, really - and about how he was such a tremendous speaker. I left out all the nasty bits about his shady home life and sexual indiscretions.

It was great to talk to the students about how a subculture in my own nation had overcome adversity. It was also neat to see how that particular situation in America was able to influence them a little. They have many, many obstacles to overcome in their culture: poverty, infringing Asian powers, corruption in the government... We talked about the above quote, one of my favorites. We also talked about this one:

"Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus." "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution", an address at the Episcopal National Cathedral, Washington D.C. (31 March 1968)

What a profound thought. "Molder of consensus..." It's very true that leadership needs to rally consensus and not simply seek it. For one thing , you won't find a consensus in this country today. I'm interested to see what kind of consensus Obama creates. I hope he goes moderate so we don't swing too far left.

"Molder of consensus" also has many negative, Orwellian connotations as well. Some of the greatest molders of consensus were Hitler, Guevara, Lennin, Mao... We all know how badly these ended (or are continuing)... I think we saw a touch, a smidgen of a taste, of Orwellian behavior during the past election. Dear Haters, please don't come back with accusations of me comparing Obama to Hitler or Mao - I'm not. No one can deny, however, the bizarre robot-like ferver with which his empty rhetoric was met.

I mean, I keep saying "pass the soma" until it's become trite (at least to me). If you don't understand this reference, I'm speaking of Aldous Huxley's novel "A Brave New World" in which the people were mandatorily given a mind-altering drug called "soma." They would pop various amounts to wash away the awful cares of the world, i.e. reality. Any malcontent or anxiety or sadness or disappointment could be removed, consequence-free, with the magic little pill. Huxley was your quintessintial, post-modern hippy (hippie?) intellectual who back in the 60's promoted the experimentation of psychadelic drugs to further the evolution of our consciousness as human beings. Anyway, as you read the book you become incensed at how these people are dumbed down by these drugs and how it allows the hidden world power to control the population. Some of the mania surrounding our new president reminded me a little of this. The people crying and chanting at his mediocre, redundant speeches... It was like someone had passed out the soma.

"Don't worry about what he's saying! Just listen to the pretty sounds! Isn't he dynamic? You don't know what 'dynamic' means??? It's not important."

I wonder exactly what MLK Jr. would have to say about it. I'll have to ask Rick Warren to get in touch with the Cloud of Witnesses and get back to me.

Until then....

Bryant