We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech
March on Washington, August 28, 1963
August 28, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary of MLK’s great speech. I lifted the above quote from it because in it he speaks of the concept of “creative protest.”
King is and always has been one of my favorite revolutionary misfits. And that’s what misfits do, in large part…engage in creative protest.
Why does the world need creative protest?
Because it’s the way those getting the short end can creatively persuade those hoarding the long end to even things up a bit. That’s no easy task, but King and others have proven that it can be done.
It usually means taking unpopular stances.
What all too often appears to be the case is that “might makes right.” But in reality it isn’t so.
Just because the majority wills it, doesn’t make it right, nor true, nor good. So we have to engage in creative protest in order to change their minds. To turn that phrase around and demonstrate that right makes might.
I fixated on that one small phrase of King’s historic speech because it resonated with me. In many ways it captures the idea of impact mindfulness and the concept behind revolutionary misfit.
This blog really is about creative protest.
There are problems in our world right now. And there’s a great degree of “might” behind them. The more fortunate will cling with all the considerable degree of power at their disposal to keep things just as they are…rigged in their favor.
And as King recognized so brilliantly, it is not coercion that will change this scenario, but creativity.
We need to provide help for the more fortunate. Help in understanding that there’s much more at stake than their lifestyles. That we should cherish the fact that we are all in this boat together. We don’t, but we should.
Why?
Because it is true…it is right. It might not be practical. It might not be supportive of an assumed right to consume at a rate that the planet cannot sustain, but it is true…it is right.
And in the end it is really not might that makes right…but the other way around.
Creative protest of the kind that King, Ghandi and others of their ilk invented and used so effectively…those revolutionary misfit pioneers…is what the world needs a lot more of these days.
image credit: Biketripper via Compfight cc
