Monday, January 17, 2011

Some Tech insight from Martin Luther King Jr.


We all know that Martin Luther King Jr. was a great voice for change, and the chief spokesman for nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement. But did you know that he also had some wise advice to give us technophiles? In his 1964 Nobel Lecture at Oslo, Norway, Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us not to allow our "moral progress" to fall behind our progress in science and technology. Here is what he had to say:

"Yet, in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.
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This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature subjugates the "within", dark storm clouds begin to form in the world."

4 comments:

  1. Ah yes, very true. It's like that old saying: "We can put a man on the moon, but we can't ___."
    Maybe if people weren't so complicated lol.

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  2. we all need just a little soul work!

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  3. i loved this... & it is very true... morality is going straight out the window.

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