Martin Luther King Jr. A Testament of Hope: ... Communism forgets that life is individual. Capitalism forgets that life is social, and the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism but in a higher synthesis. It is found in a higher synthesis that combines the truths of both. p.250 This revolution of values must go beyond traditional capitalism and communism. We must honestly admit that capitalism has often left a gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, has created conditions permitting necessities to be taken from the many to give luxuries to the few, and has encouraged smallhearted men to become cold and conscienceless so that, like Dives before Lazarus, they are unmoved by suffering, poverty-stricken humanity. Equally, communism reduces men to a cog in the wheel of the state. The communist may object, saying that in Marxian theory the state is an 'interim reality' that will 'wither away' when the classless society emerges. True- in theory; but it is also true that, while the state lasts, it is an end in itself. Man is a means to that end. He has no inalienable rights. His only rights are derived from, and conferred by, the state. Under such a system the fountain of freedom runs dry. Restricted are man's liberties of press and assembly, his freedom to vote and his freedom to listen and to read. Truth is found neither in traditional capitalism nor in classical communism. The good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism. ... The problems we now face must take us beyond slogans for their solution. In the final analysis, the right-wing slogans on 'government control' and 'creeping socialism' are as meaningless and adolescent as the Chinese Red Guard slogans against 'bourgeois revisionism.' An intelligent approach to the problems of poverty and racism will cause us to see the words of the Psalmist- |
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