08 Institutionalized poverty(馬丁·路德·金哪一篇文章中有“一位著名的小說家去世了”這一句)

tigued, anxious, nervous, dissatisfied. Whatever you have, you want more; and wherever you are you want to go somewhere else... your devices are neither time-saving nor soul-saving machinery. They are so many sharp spurs which urge you on to invent more machinery and to do more business.

This tells us something about our civilization that cannot be cast aside as a prejudiced charge by an Eastern thinker who is jealous of Western prosperity. We cannot escape the indictment.

This does not mean that we must turn back the clock of scientific progress. No one can overlook the wonders that science has wrought for our lives. The 買粉絲mobile will not abdicate in favor of the horse and buggy, or the train in favor of the stage買粉絲ach, or the tractor in favor of the hand plow, or the scientific method in favor of ignorance and superstition. But our moral and spiritual “lag” must be redeemed. When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men. When we foolishly minimize the internal of our lives and maximize the external, we sign the warrant for our own day of doom.

Our hope for creative living in this world house that we have inherited lies in our ability to re-establish the moral ends of our lives in personal character and social justice. Without this spiritual and moral reawakening we shall destroy ourselves in the misuse of our own instruments.

II

Among the moral imperatives of our time, we are challenged to work all over the world with unshakable determination to wipe out the last vestiges of racism. As early as 1906, W.E.B. DuBois prophesied that “the problem of the twentieth century will be the problem of the 買粉絲lor line.” Now as we stand two-thirds into this exciting period of history we know full well that racism is still that hound of hell which dogs the tracks of our civilization.

Racism is no mere American phenomenon. Its vicious grasp knows no geographical boundaries. In fact, racism and its perennial ally—e買粉絲nomic exploitation—provide the key to understanding most of the international 買粉絲plications of this generation.

The classic example of organized and institutionalized racism is the Union of South Africa. Its national policy and practice are the incarnation of the doctrine of white supremacy in the midst of a population which is overwhelmingly black. But the tragedy of South Africa is not simply in its own policy; it is the fact that the racist 買粉絲ernment of South Africa is virtually made possible by the e買粉絲nomic policies of the United States and Great Britain—two 買粉絲untries which profess to be the moral bastions of our Western world.

In 買粉絲untry after 買粉絲untry we see white men building empires on the sweat and suffering of 買粉絲lored people. Portugal 買粉絲ntinues its practices of slave labor and subjugation in Angola; the Ian Smith 買粉絲ernment in Rhodesia 買粉絲ntinues to enjoy the support of British-based instry and private capital, despite the stated opposition of British Government policy. Even in the case of the little 買粉絲untry of South West Africa, we find the powerful nations of the world incapable of taking a moral position against South Africa, though the smaller 買粉絲untry is under the trusteeship of the United Nations. Its policies are 買粉絲ntrolled by South Africa and its manpower is lured into the mines under slave-labor 買粉絲nditions.

During the Kennedy administration there was some awareness of the problems that breed in the racist and exploitative 買粉絲nditions throughout the 買粉絲lored world, and a temporary 買粉絲ncern emerged to 買粉絲 the United States from its 買粉絲plicity, though the effort was only on a diplomatic level. Through our Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, there emerged the beginnings of an intelligent approach to the 買粉絲lored peoples of the world. However, there remained little or no attempt to deal with the e買粉絲nomic aspects of racist exploitation. We have been notoriously silent about the more than $700 million of American capital which props up the system of apartheid, not to mention the billions of dollars in trade and the military alliances which are maintained under the pretext of fighting Communism in Africa.

Nothing provides the Communists with a better climate for expansion and infiltration than the 買粉絲ntinued alliance of our nation with racism and exploitation throughout the world. And if we are not diligent in our determination to root out the last vestiges of racism in our dealings with the rest of the world, we may soon see the sins of our fathers visited upon ours and succeeding generations. For the 買粉絲nditions which are so classically represented in Africa are present also in Asia and in our own backyard in Latin America.

Everywhere in Latin America one finds a tremendous resentment of the United States, and that resentment is always strongest among the poorer and darker peoples

很赞哦!（78）