The Death of Martin Luther King (OT)

I wish Martin Luther King Jr. mattered more right now. I'm not saying he's been marginalized, but we seem to see him now from a great distance, as if from far off in the gauzy clouds, or as if he's entered the realm of legend, like the murdered dragon-slayer Siegfried in the Song of the Nibelungs.

I'm going to take a little bit of a risk here. Many people out on the wild 'n' wooly tubes of the Internets don't know it, but it's illegal to quote more than a few paragraphs of someone else's work. So those people you see reposting whole articles on forums "for the convenience of others," or whatever, are actually breaking the law. This maybe skirts the edge of what's permissible. But I'd like to share with you a few teaser paragraphs written by one of my favorite writers, Louis Menand [below, left], in an article titled "Been There: The Presidential Election of 1968":

In close elections, such as those of 1960, 1968, and 1976, the vote is essentially the equivalent of flipping a coin. If the voting had happened a week earlier or a week later or on a rainy day, the outcome might have been reversed. But we interpret the result as if it reflected the national intention, a collective decision by the people to rally behind R., and repudiate D. Even when the winner receives fewer votes than the loser, as in 2000 and 2016, we talk about the national mood and direction almost entirely in terms of the winning candidate, and as though the person more voters preferred had vanished, his or her position barely worth reporting on.

Millions more Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and in 2012 and for Hillary Clinton in 2016 than voted for Donald Trump, but the Trump voter is now the protagonist of the national narrative. People talk about how Americans want to roll back globalization—even though most Americans who voted appear to want no such thing. The United States is one of the few democracies that does not have a coalition government, and a winner-take-all electoral system breeds a winner-take-all punditry.

Later in the same article he continues:

People who write and argue about politics are ideologues. They hold a coherent set of positions that they identify as liberal or conservative (or some variation, like libertarian or leftist). But, to millions of voters, those terms mean almost nothing. These voters do not think in ideological terms, and their positions on the issues are often inconsistent and lacking in coherence. Given the option, they will sometimes identify as moderates or centrists, but that tells us very little about how they will vote.

The fact that voters are often responding to nonideological cues helps to explain the volatility of the electorate.

1968, as is often repeated, was a pivotal year in American history; whole books have been written about it, including ones by Mark Kurlansky and Charles Kaiser. It was the year of the My Lai massacre, the year the Beatles' White Album came out, the year Bobby Kennedy was killed, the year American cities burned in widespread rioting, the year the movie Planet of the Apes was released, the year Yale University went coed, the year Richard Nixon became President.

Menand's article argues that "Politically, the most important event in the United States in 1968 was...the assassination, on April 4th, of Martin Luther King."

Puts MLK back into context, on MLK Day. Good article. Reading it is a good way to remind ourselves of the remaining relevance of Martin Luther King.

It was in The New Yorker, the issue of Jan. 8, 2018; published online as "Lessons from the Election of 1968."

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

B.J.: "On M.L. King day, I do not think one can do better than read M.L. King himself. I recommend 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.' It is easily found on the web with a Google search."

Ray Hunter: "A Louis Menand reference on The Online Photographer! It doesn't get any better than this! As a long-time fan of Menand's writing (and The Online Photographer), I find his considered opinions concerning the American culture thoughtful, even wise, sometimes very witty, and always beautifully-written. I also would recommend his American Studies and The Metaphysical Club to individuals who enjoy good writing that concerns American history. Thanks!!"

Ned Bunnell: "One of my favorite MLK quotes..."

Chuck Albertson: "I can see Menand's point about MLK's murder being the most significant political event of 1968, but my clear recollection of that year is of an endless series of equally Bad Things that hit like bowling balls rolling off the roof. Except for Apollo 8 and the Stones' release of 'Beggars Banquet,' but they were both at the end of the year.

"Given his theme, I was a little surprised he left off the late Joe McGinniss's The Selling of the President 1968, which was a great behind-the-scenes look at Nixon's television campaign (overseen by Roger Ailes!), where the rubber of his law 'n' order pitch, among others, met the road. The book's publication was met with about the same reaction that Fire and Fury has been today."

Mani Sitaraman: "Without getting too far away from the topic of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is worth noting that 1968 was a pivotal year, not just in American political and cultural history, but in many countries around the world. General strikes and student activism in France, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the year the Cultural revolution in China really picked up steam, the emergence of Maoist rebels in India; the whole world seemed to be going up in flames.

"The French have a term for the socially activist young people of that time: Soixtant Huitard, literally, 'Sixty-Eighter.'

"An excellent broad-survey history of that year is Year of the Heroic Guerrilla: World Revolution and Counterrevolution in 1968 by Robert Daniels, published by Harvard University Press."

Comments

[Geoff Wittig]

Martin Luther King, Jr. is widely praised by mainstream pundits from the safe distance of 40 years; he is often peddled as the noble image of non-violent resistance. Who could seriously make an argument that civil rights and racial justice were not moral imperatives? It goes without saying. It's the safe mainstream position.
But in 1968 Dr. King was a lot less popular than he is now with liberal whites, much less enthusiastically embraced, because he dared to make an uncomfortable point. He noted that economic justice, addressing the enduring, crushing economic legacy of slavery in the form of African American poverty, would require active redress from white America. Not just the right to vote without interference from fire-hoses and police dogs, but active investment in education, infrastructure and communities to begin undoing centuries of brutality. It would be an understatement to point out this was not popular even with well-intentioned liberal whites.
It still isn't. Just google 'reparations'.

[beuler]

I hold a belief that a majority of voters is driven by a desire to be fashionable. For many decades after WWII, "liberalism" has been the most fashionable ideology in most elections in Western countries. The Reagan/Thatcher years were the most enduring exception.

Being a Reality TV star, Trump neutralises the fashionable advantage of Democratic candidates, thus his electoral victory. To paraphrase the old SNL sketch, that's my theory and I am sticking to it.

To be clear, by liberalism I mean agnostic, inteventionist and socially minded. I know other people use the term in different ways and I think that's fine.

[Doug Thacker]

A man or woman can always be killed, that's easy enough to do. Killing truth is much harder. It can be slowed down for a time, stymied temporarily, but not stopped. Once in the wild, the truth resides in all of us, and they can't kill us all. MLK is dead as a doornail, but the truth he stood for lives on, despite any hopes to the contrary. It may take awhile, but truth will prevail. Never doubt it. Martin Luther King matters more now than he ever did, and tomorrow he will matter even more.

[Stan B.]

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. -MLK

[JFul]

In Menand's article, the context of MLK's assassination as a political event was the rioting and civil disorder resulting from it. Many Americans became more fearful about the perceived breakdown in "law and order". Nixon was able to exploit this fear to help himself win the election in 1968.

[KeithB]

Another good rememberance
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a15165611/martin-luther-king-radical-legacy/

[Jon Porter]

While there's no doubt King had a profound effect on the country, it would have been better to call his holiday Civil Rights Day, thus also acknowledging the many other civil rights leaders. Holidays should commemorate events in American history, not individuals. That's why it's called Labor Day, not Samual Gompers Day.

[William Lewis]

"Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride"

They got the time of day wrong, but that part is not the important one. For me, the moment of standing in a stadium singing those words with 50,000 others was an affirmation of everything good that we can be in his memory.

It's easier now when he isn't here poking liberal and conservative alike; when his personal life can be pretended to have been perfect (but no saint was ever easy to live with, I'll bet a $100 on that).

Instead where we live in a nation where the politician praise him with one side of their mouths while stealing the liberties he fought for all to have from anyone darker hued than a Scandinavian sun tan. My son is from Vietnam; damn right I'm fighting mad.

MLK Jr & Dietrich Bonhoeffer are the sign posts that any one who dares think of themselves as American right now should be following.

[Mani Sitaraman]

"I wish Martin Luther King Jr. mattered more right now. I'm not saying he's been marginalized, but we seem to see him now from a great distance, as if from far off in the gauzy clouds, or as if he's become legendary, like the murdered dragon-slayer Siegfried in the Song of the Nibelungs."

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.

(PS:I trust I do not offend anyone's religious sentiments if I quote a phrase from a 400 year old book written by a committee.)

[John Ashbourne]

Sorry that this is a day late but the MLK message must be repeated often and more ... and the widely seen video by Valerie Kaur, the Sikh-American lawyer, is an excellent contemporary iteration.
Some might think it impertinent for a Brit-Canadian to comment on an essentially US issue but, of course, this is far wider than 'an American' issue. It is a world wide moral issue made pertinent and urgent for us all by the potentially global practical and even existential influence and power that the USA exerts.
I am now in my 80th year but wish that I had my youth and energy again to play a more active role than merely commenting from a desk.
In my twenties I seriously believed that this would be one of those issues that I would live to be able to look back on and wonder only why it had taken so long to be dealt with ... not only in the USA but in my own country and elsewhere.
Sad how the naivety of the young so often leads to the despond of old age ! My Grandsons are now the generation in their twenties and have similar views to mine at that age ... I hope fervently that they will not need to feel similarly in their eighth decade.

[paul logins]

"it's illegal to quote more than a few paragraphs of someone else's work."
Cite precisely the law that makes it illegal. Define "work"
in the law and in your eyes. Define "quote" Define "a few
paragraphs" What number of paragraphs?

[Title 17 of the United States Code, Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. There are four factors the courts look at when determining whether use is Fair Use or infringement, explained here:

https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html

--Mike]

[Earl Dunbar]

1968 wore me out. It was a pivotal year for me, I changed from conservative by heritage to progressive by experience and conviction.