Martin Luther King on ‘Civil Disobedience and Morality’

In the context of civil disobedience and morality, two incidents come to mind:

One: Prof. Ramachandra Gandhi, distinguished Professor of Philosophy and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, went to England on an invitation to deliver a series of talks; the immigration Officials at the Heathrow airport did not accord the respect the Professor commanded. Prof. Gandhi felt insulted and immediately sat on a Dharna, a sit-in protest, at the airport itself! Others intervened after a considerable time and the issue was resolved amicably. Two: An incident at the medical school I went to in south India. A group of socially disadvantaged students went to meet the director of the school to air their grievances as the fellowship due to them had not been dispersed putting them into a lot of hardship. The director was unyielding citing procedural regulations. Examinations were to commence the next day. The group decided on the spur of the moment to have a peaceful ‘sit-in’ protest, sat down as a group, blocked the whole corridor and would not budge. The director relented and the grants were released soon.

‘Sit-in’ protests or ‘Dharna’ as they are known in India are peaceful demonstrations resorted to quite often in India: – this is a legacy popularized by Gandhi. This was formulated and perfected over the years as a consequence of the humiliation he was subjected to while travelling in a I class compartment in Apartheid-South Africa. This was only a part of the Satyagraha movement (literally, agitation for truth). Gandhi acknowledges the influence of Thoreau’s essay, ‘Resistance to Civil Government’ on him in formulating this resistance. This, in turn, influenced Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King in formulating their resistance movements.

MLK’s discussion with James Kilpatrick on ‘Civil disobedience and Morality’ is interesting at least for two reasons. One, King’s repeated assertion that the ‘sit-in’ strikes of the 1960’s were in conformity with the American tradition and, by implication, should not be construed as something alien to it. Second, and perhaps more important, King’s assertion that these were in conformity with the ‘moral laws of the universe’; this insistence upon the ‘moral centrality’ in any action seems central to the American ethos. Ralph Waldo Emerson, eminent American philosopher, says in his essay ‘Nature’:

Sensible objects conform to the premonitions of Reason and reflect the Conscience. All things are moral; and in their boundless changes have an unceasing reference to spiritual nature.

(Norton Anthology of American Literature, Nina Baym et al. [editors], New York 1979, P.338)

In this discussion he held with James Kilpatrick, MLK insists upon clearing the misconception that Kilpatrick subtly suggests that these ‘sit-in’ strikes are essentially black-population centered, and therefore, in a sense, ‘un-American’!  In the larger perspective, the implication was that it was opposed to the ‘moral-centrality’ that the American tradition so earnestly sustains. MLK insists upon dispelling all these three undercurrents in Kilpatrick’s question when he asks MLK if the ‘sit-in’ strikes were selfish in orientation. MLK seems to imply that these protests by the people are to ensure that the ‘soul’ of America remains intact and well-guarded. The suggestion being that these protests were meant to ensure the well-being of the American soul. To substantiate this, he quotes St. Augustine – “An unjust law is no Law at all”. An unjust law demands that a conscientious citizen needs to take a stand against it. There is a moral compunction behind assertion of the moral centrality of the Universe. In this, he reminds us of Emerson’s views on action and thought:

The same central unity is still more conspicuous in action. Words are finite organs of the infinite mind… An action is the perfection and publication of thought.    

(Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature and other essays. Courier Corporation, 2012.)

MLK’s words suggest much more than what appears merely in print – that all these actions, physical as they are, mirror the ‘Meta-physical’. In his essay, ‘Resistance to Civil Government’, Thoreau says:

The Government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.

(Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience: Resistance to Civil Government. The Floating Press, 2009.)

In other words, MLK implies that the civil disobedience America was witnessing in the 1960’s such as the ‘sit-in’ strikes were a reaction against the ‘perversion’ of the Government, a ‘moral derailment’ the society was going through. This in effect, for MLK, was an attempt to ‘save the soul of America’. In this age of Globalization where the danger is not so much of the Market economy dictating terms of life to us as much as we the citizens completely losing the moral centrality that has sustained human existence, MLK’s words are all the more relevant. This, coupled with the fact that MLK was aware of the need to relate the life of the ‘Individual’ at the micro-cosmic level to ‘Life’ at the macro-cosmic level makes it all the more relevant to us.

Humanity and Medicine

The only wisdom we can hope to achieve’, says the poet Eliot in one of his poems, ‘is the wisdom of humility, humility is endless’. (T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, Faber and Faber, London, 1974). From times immemorial, philosophers have examined the philosophy of ‘Humanism’ and its relationship with other metaphysical questions related to Spirituality on the one hand and metaphysical explorations on the other. Humanism as a philosophy became a spiritual question particularly in the aftermath of the world wars when man’s inhumanity to man became a contentious issue. This, coupled with economic instability, lack of trust in humanity and spirituality made man to question the very basis of human existence. This gave rise to an added interest in philosophies such as Existentialism with its insistence on profound universal questions regarding essence and existence. In a world haunted by a lack of faith, philosophies such as Existentialism emphasized the need to be human, to respond to human travails and anxieties. This is best epitomized in the figure of Dr. Bernard Rieux in Albert Camus’s novel ‘The Plague’ (though admittedly, Camus disliked and rejected the Existentialist label given to him). Philosophers such as Bertrand Russell made it their life-long mission to highlight the need to be more human. In fact, ‘to be human is to be divine’ seems to be the truth these conscientious thinkers insist upon.

One common grouse leveled against medical and allied professions is that they are no longer ‘human’ as they were once upon a time-that they have become mechanical and sometimes mercenaries. In a world where capitalistic ethos becomes all pervasive, such a compliant is rather deafening, at least in the under-developed countries.

I am of the opinion that Humanity is a manifestation of Divinity and as medical professionals, we need to reassert our faith and commitment to humanity.

‘Face’ to face with Disaster

The haunting lines of Coleridge’s famous poem can suitably be modified to describe the plight of the victims of the earthquake in Haiti (or for that matter, in Japan) -“rubble, rubble everywhere, not a shelter to seek!” No words could describe the unprecedented human suffering and tragedy that ensued. No wonder the great Philosopher Wittgenstein asserted, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent!”, but in this case there was nobody to listen, let alone help; stuck in a claustrophobic hole were people- men, women and children, who had lost all hopes of communicating to the world outside the depths of the devastation. As the world would spin to the ‘widow-making, unchilding, unfathering deeps’ of despair (from Hopkins’ The Wreck of the Deutschland), through the slit holes of rubble would emerge these voices- faceless, nameless- that would cry for help and assistance. It was a time when the people struck by the tragedy discovered that technology could come to their rescue.

The catastrophe that hit Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements on Jan 12th, 2010, killed in its wake 230,000 people, injured 300,000 and left more than 1,000,000 homeless. In a crisis like this, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter sprang to the aid of the Haitian populace with an amazing alacrity. The citizens turned into reporters, posted information and images on these websites minutes after the disaster took place. There was an element of immediacy and urgency in these reports which reached the rest of the world in no time bringing home the plight and helplessness of the Haitian people. These were posted by those whose lives were oscillating between the extremities of personal disaster and public devastation; it was also a time when Haiti saw the glass wall between humanity and technology quietly disappear, allowing the human warmth to flood in. The social media responded immediately! Facebook created a page to share information about the earthquake which received 150 messages per minute. The Global Disaster Relief page so created continued to operate effectively even after the Haitian crisis was addressed. The Twitter community did everything possible to provide extensive initial coverage on the Haitian tragedy. CNN used ‘iReport’ to gather vital news and early images of the quake affected region. Even micro volunteering sites like ‘The Extraordinaries’ gave people an opportunity to use their smartphones to upload pictures of missing family members and disaster images.

Organisations such as ‘Catholic Relief Services’ used Facebook status updates to communicate with relief workers and volunteers far and wide. Oxfam International used their Facebook page to create the first fund-raising campaign just a few hours after the quake- an effort that helped mobilize 250,000 dollars. The American Red Cross was able to raise 20 million dollars within no time, thanks to its texting campaign. Thousands of Red Cross volunteers and hundreds of Red Crescent staff from countries around the world worked together to heal Haiti. Shelters were created for more than 1.5 million people, food supplies were provided to more than 400,000 people and Healthcare Units monitored the wellbeing of over 100,000 victims. Rescue workers used mobile media not only to save lives but also to drive fund-raising. The social media did everything to reaffirm faith in humanity; however, a murkier side of social networking started spreading the rumour that a donation of 1 dollar would be given to every member who sent a message about Haiti. Millions became new members overnight to claim the dollar and Facebook had to post a warning to quell the rumour. There were also reports of unscrupulous people who appealed to the public to contribute to the Haitian relief but quietly disappeared after pocketing the humanitarian aid!

This raises disturbing questions on spamming and hacking which can be easily done by some individuals in such fan groups. Computer security experts express dismay over ‘promiscuous friending’, a habit indulged in by Facebook users by accepting friend requests from all and sundry. This only allows computer criminals to take advantage of gullible people.

The social media managers have to structure unstructured information to prevent such crimes. A close monitoring would weed out spams and dubious messages. Some type of control and leadership are imperative to put things in place. Only then will such online activity become trust-worthy and the social media will continue to serve humanity devastated by natural calamities.

Beyond Black and White

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, way back in 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King uttered in his historic speech, “I have a dream that one day on the Red Hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood” (1), he was giving expression to the aspirations of millions of people singed and scarred by racial discrimination. The words of Dr. King assume greater significance in this post-modern scenario where “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned” (2), where narrow national prejudices, impoverished ideologies, disruptive ideas of caste, creed and color are unleashed, causing untold misery to the ‘lesser mortals’. His egalitarian views that were meant to transform the world into a better place was astonishingly similar to those expressed by the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore, who in his celebrated ‘Gitanjali’ prays that mankind should be able to walk in a space “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high” and “the world is not broken up into narrow fragments.” (3)

The resilience, the strength of character that King possessed was something that he inherited from his father, who was the pastor of a church in Atlanta. Senior King had never accepted the segregation system and always spoke of the need to challenge it. His mother often spoke of the humiliation the Blacks were subjected to and encouraged him to stand bravely against the evils of discrimination. Being a harbinger of social change, the young King denounced racism for causing estrangement and separating “not only bodies but minds and spirits.” (4) He never gave up on his efforts to lift America from the quagmire of regional and racial prejudices, for he believed that “beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is the vocation of sonship and brotherhood.” (5)

Dr. King became deeply involved in the Civil Rights campaign treading the Gandhian path of ‘ahimsa’ or non-violence. He strongly felt that the fissiparous forces could be countered only by a humane approach and not by violence. He urged people to identify and locate the good, hidden in the darker domains of human personality; to discover the divine in the human persona that would elevate them from stilted sectarian preoccupations and absurd ideas of racial supremacy to a higher realm of spirituality. Moral centrality was the common thread that lined his thoughts on various issues, be it poverty, racism or militarism.

Today, as we celebrate his life and all the great things he stood for, let us revive the values that make life worth living- love, compassion, faith, fraternity, honesty and human bonding. Or else, we will be compelled to join Matthew Arnold who said – “The world which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.”(6)

This essay was one of the honorable mentions during Case Western Reserve University’s annual MLK Essay contest (2012).

References:

1. ‘I have a dream’ – speech by Martin Luther King, delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D. C.
2. W.B. Yeats, ‘The Second Coming’, The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Norton, New York, 2006, PP. 2036-37.
3. Rabindranath Tagore, ‘Gitanjali’, Song Offerings to God, Translated from the original Bengali by the poet, Shantiniketan, 1998.
4. Excerpted from Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community (New York: Harper & Brothers 1967).
5. Excerpted from “Loving Your Enemies,” Nov. 17, 1957, a sermon given at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
6. Matthew Arnold, ‘Dover Beach’, The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Norton, New York, 2006, PP. 1368-69.

 

A Shot in the Arm

Edward Jenner, the man behind the concept of immunization would never have imagined that his great discovery would be derailed in such a devastating manner across the world. His discovery not only eradicated Smallpox but also paved the way for other vaccines that helped contain contagious diseases such as Measles and Mumps. The DTP (Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis) vaccine in particular, has proved to be a great blessing, preventing thousands of fatalities, thus saving precious lives.

However, anti-vaccine movements started gaining ground towards the end of the 19th century in response to universal vaccination laws in Great Britain. According to Anna Kata of McMaster University, the anti-vaccine movement has skewed the sciences, shifted hypothetical positions, censored facts and has also spread the myth that vaccines are toxic and unnatural[1].

There was a strong anti-vaccination wave at the beginning of the 20th century in Europe, particularly in countries like Sweden and Great Britain[2]. Consequently, morbidity and mortality due to diseases like Pertussis were 10-100 times greater in these countries when compared to the United States or Hungary where vaccination rates were still very high during that period[3].

Perhaps the greatest damage to universal vaccination in the modern scientific era was done by Andrew Wakefield, a British surgeon whose dubious research linked the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine to Autism[4]. In the wake of his argument and the subsequent publicity it received, the anti-vaccine movement got a new impetus. Celebrities and anti-vaccine evangelists not only argued that vaccines are harmful and can cause autism, but also spoke about infringement of individual freedom, thereby encouraging mothers to refuse vaccination for their young children. Such groups have often encouraged people to find loopholes in the law to circumvent vaccination. Research has clearly shown that autism rates are not any lower in unvaccinated children[5]. The thimerosal-autism link has also been disproved by the scientific community[6], though anti-vaccine groups continue to use this as an excuse to push forward their propaganda.

It is indeed a great travesty that the anti-vaccine movement has garnered more media attention than the pro-vaccine movement which is based on sound scientific research. The recent outbreaks of Measles and Pertussis in several major cities in the United States is testament to the great harm being done by anti-vaccination movement[7].

In such a bleak scenario it is indeed necessary to debunk myths about the harmful effects of vaccinations, by providing facts and figures. It is the duty of public health professionals, the medical fraternity, nurses, social workers and the informed public to draw attention to the resurgence of diseases due to anti-vaccine propaganda. Religious and community leaders should be actively involved in such health campaigns. The print and the visual media should be engaged to endorse counter campaigns that can deactivate the anti-vaccine movements. Poster sessions in schools and PTA meetings could be effective ways to encourage vaccination. Ensuring availability of immunization education material in places such as community centres, playgroups and schools where parents can access them would be useful. In addition, encouraging vaccination during well-child care visits, parent reminders and parent education during visits to pediatric care clinics can also help in increasing vaccination rates. Celebrities could endorse vaccines to counter the media attention that the anti-vaccination movement attracts. In this age of Facebook and Twitter, social marketing and social media are effective tools that can help combat the anti-vaccination rhetoric when properly used. Very importantly, more research in the form of case-control and longitudinal studies to show the efficacy of vaccines is absolutely essential, especially in the case of newer vaccines.

‘A prick in time makes life fine’ and this should become our oft-quoted line.

APHA 2012 Get Ready Scholarship Essay-Graduate Level

References:

[1] http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/01/tactics_and_tropes_of_the_antivaccine_mo.php
[2] Wolfe R. M., Sharp L. K. (2002). Anti-vaccinationists past and present. BMJ, Volume 325, Issue 7361, Pages 430 – 432
[3] Gangarosa E. J. et al. (1998) Impact of anti-vaccine movements on pertussis control: the untold story. The Lancet, Volume 351, Issue 9099, Pages 356 – 361
[4] Wakefield A. J. et al. (1998). Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. The Lancet, Volume 351, Issue 9103, Pages 637 – 641
[5] Gerber J. S., Offit P. A. (2009). Vaccines and Autism: A Tale of Shifting Hypotheses. Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 48, Issue 4, Pages 456 – 461
[6] http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Concerns/thimerosal/index.html
[7] Measles Invades The U.S. As The Anti-Vaccine Movement Scores Again (May 2011) http://www.forbes.com/sites/sciencebiz/2011/05/04/measles-invades-the-u-s-as-the-anti-vaccine-movement-scores-again/