The Left and Collective Responsibility
by Bay Area Guy
One of the more sophisticated arguments leftists employ in order to morally browbeat “privileged” groups into embracing their agenda is the notion that “silence is consent.” Famous black civil rights activist Martin Luther King on several occasions made statements to the effect that those who remain neutral during times of conflict and oppression have chosen the side of the oppressor. In one of his classic works “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” King does not mince words when denouncing white moderates who were insufficiently devoted to the cause of black freedom:
“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.”
