The alternative to violence in Martin Luther King's words
Text of a conference held at the Battista Church of Florence on October 27, 2007
“Violence generates violence; Hate generates hatred and intransigence generates other intransigence. It is a descending spiral, and in the end there is only destruction, for everyone ". Instead, Martin Luther King reminds us, "non -violence produces the transformation of the world and the overcoming of the grudge. But to do all this we must not be satisfied, urges King, of the pennies that are offered to us". But bisona ask for will, desire and why not, to fight for an energetic transformation of the world. Only words? Martin Luther King with his life, dedicated to realizing this "dream", reminds us that this is not the case.
In December 1966 Martin Luther King tells an anecdote about the role of love and the strength of non -violence. King tells about four young people: Tex, Pueblo, Goat and Teddy. All four came from the poor black neighborhoods (Negro Slums), all four were part of those street bands that only knew the language of violence, bullying, we would say today.
King says: "I felt that there was no hope of transforming these guys, they only vomit poison against this world".
But these four boys accepted Martin Luther King's proposal: "Participated this summer, we are in 1966, in the nonviolent march for freedom through Mississippi". The boys accepted and arrived with many of their friends.
King claims to have been worried: will these guys be capable, accustomed to a violent world to respond with violence, be able to be non -violent? In the end King comments: these guys behaved splendidly. They learned in Mississippi and returned to Chicago to teach him to others, the beautiful lesson of acting against evil by renouncing the use of strength.
There is an alternative to violence and there is an alternative for many young people today who are prisoners of the logic of violence. I would like to give voice to this alternative using three terms dear to Martin Luther King, three terms that King used very often in his interventions.
Three words and if you apologize to my English pronunciation, I would like to say what these three words are first in English, then I will try to translate them into Italian: Bitterness is the first, Maladjustment is the second, Tokenism is the third.
BitternessIt means rancor. Maladjustment It means disdaining. Tokenism: pennies. Each violent act produces grudge, but young people may not adapt to this logic of violence, express their disdainment, above all by not welcoming the pennies, those small replacement contributions to the only true objective they must propose in their life: the affirmation of the right to the duty of a good and right life. But we enter more detail.
Violence produces resentment, resentment, hate. Violence produces Bitterness. Not only in those who suffer the violent act, but also in those who perform it. And again, not only in those who use violence and in those who suffer it, but also in the generations that will come later.
King says: "If the victims of the oppression succumb to the temptation to use violence in the struggle for justice, future generations will have to face a long and desolate night of hatred, and their main inheritance for the future will be a kingdom with no end of chaos and nonsense".
Violence produces resentment, but those who suffer violence can not be imprisoned in the network of resentment, hatred, may not produce Bitterness. It may not fall into the temptation. Here is strong awareness of Martin Luther King that we can, at any time, stop the wake of violence.
King says: "Violence generates violence; Hate generates hatred and intransigence generates other intransigence. It is a descending spiral, and in the end there is only destruction, for everyone". The word Bitterness also suggests, as a translation, the meaning of "bitterness".
Against the bitterness of violence King suggests the creative force of nonviolent resistance. King says: "I do not ask you to abandon your discontent, but to avoid transforming it into hatred and grudge. And nonviolence tells you that you can fight even without hating".
Violence produces resentment, resentment and hatred. But it also produces indifference from the many. A sometimes resigned adaptation sometimes interested. King rightly observes that the greatest tragedy is not the bold clamor of the so -called evil, but the frightening silence of the so -called vouchers.
They are the paralyzing fears and tragic apathies of those who do not feel involved the most dramatic aspect of violence. This is why King addresses a commendation to all those who are Maladjusted, misfit.
An enhancement commendation. To non -adaptation to things as they are. King says: "There are some things in our social system compared to which we all should be misunderstood ... perhaps the salvation of the world is today in the hands of the misfit. The challenge for us is to be misunderstood ... through this courageous misadays we will be able to emerge from the shabby and desolate midnight of the inhumanity of man at the dawn and bright dawn of freedom and justice".
La pratica nonviolenta diventa l’espressione più efficace del disadattamento. Noi spesso descriviamo la condizione giovanile come disadattamento. Come scomoda abitazione del mondo. Bisogna valorizzare questa pretesa di un mondo diverso, di un’utopia. Dopotutto la realtà è sempre l’utopia realizzata del più forte.
Se la violenza produce rancore, la non violenza dei disadattati produce la trasformazione del mondo e il superamento del rancore. Ma per fare tutto questo non bisogna accontentarsi, esorta King, degli spiccioli che ci vengono offerti. Non bisogna accontentarsi dei piccoli passi, delle raffinate forme di rinvio.
King usa il termine tokenism per descrivere tutte quelle offerte che facevano le istituzione per integrare solo una manciata di neri nelle scuole bianche. Tutto si riduceva a gesti simbolici. Inviti alla pazienza. Integrazioni parziali.
Ma la lotta nonviolenta non può attendere. Non si possono più chiedere piccole riforme economiche, piccoli interventi ecologici, piccole ridistribuzioni delle ricchezze, piccole giustizie, piccole solidarietà. I disadattati non violenti vogliono un’energica trasformazione del mondo.
We started with an anecdote told by King of a violent gang of young African American boys converted to non -violence. Guys who offered their bodies as resistance to violence. They have been able to transform their disdainment in practice non -violent and did not be satisfied with the small offers that were their doors.
Today we return to talk about violent gangs of young people, we return to talk about misadication. We cannot think of fighting all this with the pennies, with symbolic gestures. We must find the strength to be with them in the common effort to change the world in a nonviolent way for the affirmation of the right to the duty of a good and right life.
