Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Martin Luther King’s Death Disappears Down the Memory Hole. “He Was Assassinated by a U.S. Government Conspiracy”

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Martin Luther King’s Death Disappears Down the Memory Hole. “He Was Assassinated by a U.S. Government Conspiracy”

Click here to access article by Edward Curtin from Global Research.

As Martin Luther King’s birthday is celebrated with a national holiday, his death day disappears down the memory hole. Across the country – in response to the King Holiday and Service Act passed by Congress and signed by Bill Clinton in 1994 – people will be encouraged to make the day one of service (from Latin, servus = slave). Etymological irony aside, such service does not include King’s commitment to protesting a decadent system of racial and economic injustice or non-violently resisting the warfare state that is the United States. Government sponsored service is cultural neo-liberalism at its finest.

He goes on to argue that the holiday is being transformed into a day of service, meaning a day of unpaid service instead of honoring a man who heroically resisted the police and other capitalist authorities who tried to continue racist practices and to promote racism in order to divide Americans.