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There is already bloodshed, but right now it just happens to not be yours. The point of MLK’s quote, in my opinion, is that moderates can always find reasons t

There is already bloodshed, but right now it just happens to not be yours. The point of MLK’s quote, in my opinion, is that moderates can always find reasons to maintain status quo especially when the issues at hand are not deemed personally impactful. People are being harmed, but because they are not me or look like me it’s not worth risking potential upset.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
> There is already bloodshed, but right now it just happens to not be yours. No, there isn't. At least not in the examples mentioned. What you mention is one point of MLK's quote, but my point is different: not everyone who doesn't want to join the fight against status quo is such moderate without a personal stake in the outcome. Some are people who very much care, and have a stake, but decline involvement because they see the proposed means to involve too much collateral damage; the cure to be worse than the poison.
- alphabettsy 7y ago
  There is no ambiguity about who MLK was talking about so it’s not a direct analogy. Until we talk about specific actions and potential consequences this discussion is so vague as to be meaningless. Many of the current fights for social justice in the US face the same indifference as the last century’s civil rights movement. People who stand to lose nothing simply can’t be bothered.
AnimalMuppet 7y ago
This gets really messy. People are being harmed. There are people (let's be charitable and assume that the set does not include TeMPOral) who want to do nothing, because they aren't among the people being harmed. Then there's a second set of people (let's be charitable and assume that the second set does include TeMPOral) who see the harm, and care about the harm, but are unsure how far to go toward fixing it, because the wrong action (or too much of the right action) can do more harm than good, even to the people you are trying to help. And then you have the problem that the first set of people are trying to sound very much like the second set of people (and maybe even to convince themselves that they are the second set of people).
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  Thank you. That's exactly what I meant.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

> There is already bloodshed, but right now it just happens to not be yours. No, there isn't. At least not in the examples mentioned. What you mention is one point of MLK's quote, but my point is different: not everyone who doesn't want to join the fight against status quo is such moderate without a personal stake in the outcome. Some are people who very much care, and have a stake, but decline involvement because they see the proposed means to involve too much collateral damage; the cure to be worse than the poison.

alphabettsy 7y ago
There is no ambiguity about who MLK was talking about so it’s not a direct analogy. Until we talk about specific actions and potential consequences this discussion is so vague as to be meaningless. Many of the current fights for social justice in the US face the same indifference as the last century’s civil rights movement. People who stand to lose nothing simply can’t be bothered.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago

This gets really messy. People are being harmed. There are people (let's be charitable and assume that the set does not include TeMPOral) who want to do nothing, because they aren't among the people being harmed. Then there's a second set of people (let's be charitable and assume that the second set does include TeMPOral) who see the harm, and care about the harm, but are unsure how far to go toward fixing it, because the wrong action (or too much of the right action) can do more harm than good, even to the people you are trying to help. And then you have the problem that the first set of people are trying to sound very much like the second set of people (and maybe even to convince themselves that they are the second set of people).

TeMPOraL 7y ago
Thank you. That's exactly what I meant.