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bill wolfe's avatar

One of the most powerful critiques came from Dr. King's "Letter From A Birmingham Jail" (1963, before Ochs):

"I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."

https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

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Robert Billyard's avatar

In fact liberalism has been dead for the last twenty years. There can be no liberalism where there is no thrust of intention to actually pursue liberal values. It has been replaced by neoliberalism which is the total collapse of liberalism. Nobody especially the media wants to about neoliberalism because it is the stealth ideology ruining western cultures. It is a form of economic fascism where wealth and power go straight to the 1%. It is no coincidence we are about to have our first trillionaire as neoliberalism makes it very easy to become wealthy and endlessly wealthier.

Canada's liberal government is in fact neoliberal as are all our other parties as neoliberalism erases party identities.

A stated goal of neoliberalism is to denigrate and marginalize the role of governments which they have achieved very effectively as they are no more than toadies to the vested interests that control them.

It is very well entrenched in our societies going back to the time of Reagan and Thatcher who were god parents to the ideology.

Until we face the destructive realities of what neoliberalism does to our societies progressive change is frozen and war and despotism will continue to prevail.

It is only one of several ruinous ideologies operating in the background that eviscerate our liberal and democratic values. The west has been hijacked by war mongers and greedy ideologues and politicians are their "useful idiots".

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