The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #99746 Message #2011420
Posted By: Janie
30-Mar-07 - 01:03 AM
Thread Name: BS: Poverty in the USA
Subject: RE: BS: Poverty in the USA
Martin Luther King Jr. was a master manipulator. Good on him.
He kept his 'eyes on the prize.'
Kennedy's "War on Poverty" and Johnson's "Great Society" programs arose directly out of the civel rights movement. By focusing on issues rather than on people, by declining to demonize whites, King's tactics and ability to channel the energy of anger, he minimized resistance and made common cause with others involved in social injustice, or effected by social injustice, and maximized their collective power.
If his approach had been exclusively anger-based confrontation--"You piss me off, you jerk" the whole movement would have suffered and been less effective. the defensiveness that is a natural reaction to personal attack and stereotyping would have substancially reduced his ability to form coalitions.