Dr King's 1964 Nobel Prize Speech...

Had to throw this on here...

"  Modern man has brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring threshold of the future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of scientific success. He has produced machines that think and instruments that peer into the unfathomable ranges of interstellar space. He has built gigantic bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the skies. His airplanes and spaceships have dwarfed distance, placed time in chains, and carvMartin Luther King, Jr.ed highways through the stratosphere. This is a dazzling picture of modern man's scientific and technological progress.

Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: "Improved means to an unimproved end." This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature subjugates the "within," dark storm clouds begin to form in the world.  "

That was in 1964.

1964.

44 years ago.

"  The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.  "

Photo from Getty Images, link to Speech from Truehoop, of all places.

Blogged with Flock

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Speech to Campbell High Year 10 Graduation...

I've re-written this speech 100 times this week... I struggled with what to tell you, what to impart... let's start with what I won't tell you. I won’t tell you what to do with your life.   While the specifics are always interesting, there is never just one right path or option. I won’t tell you what your profession should be.   What you choose to do in life is never a matter for anyone else to judge or dictate. I won’t tell you what your opinions should be.   Where you end up philosophically is a matter for you and no one else.   I won’t tell you what you should do, what you should think, what you should feel, how you should speak. I won’t tell you to have the next few years of your life figured out.   I certainly didn’t at your age. I won’t tell you to go to university or not, to become a doctor or a mechanic, a teacher or a musician.   I won’t tell you to travel the world or never leave this town. I won’t talk to you about obstacles in life,
Read more

Ramblings in August...

Image
I’ve been sick for the last couple of days, to the point of being stuck in bed without being able to get up… that’s a lot of time to reflect… 11 months after arriving in Bangladesh, this paradoxical, improbably, impossibly beautiful mess of a country, I still hear the question: “why Bangladesh?”… Except now it always seems to be followed by “why for free?”… I find it to be the least comfortable of questions to answer; my experiences and reasons naturally differ greatly from those of others in my program. Our backgrounds and motivations are difficult to compare, so I often hesitate to respond, lest my answers be taken as a general rule… So why Bangladesh? Because that’s what I was offered. Had I been offered Somalia, Colombia, the Philippines, Laos or Samoa, I would have accepted any of them… someone once told me that if I was serious about working in development and aid, my primary purpose should always be to work myself out of a job… unfortunately, as it stands, the need for help is s
Read more

Seeing it for the first time...

It's frustrating. It's frustrating to have to face the same challenges for every project, every decision, every idea. The first few times it was amusing; perhaps that's not quite the right way to describe it, but nevertheless it didn't inspire the same sense of frustration it does now. I wish I could go into detail, however corporate privacy and all... not that it seems to matter much in Bangladesh, in the words of my Supervisor there is no such thing as "copyright" or "security" here... My mother tells me to stop being a wuss and get more creative.  Infuriatingly, she's right. When your game plan stops working, you have to change it. So here I am drawing up a new game plan.  Again. I just have to concentrate on seeing the situation again for the first time, so as not to let the frustrations overwhelm my concentration. I met up with quite a few locals last night for a couple games of ball.  Add that to the list of surreal experiences in Banglades
Read more