You know, one of the main ways to demolish someone’s legacy and use it for your own gain is to twist their words after they pass from this life. If you can twist the words and deeds of the elders to suit your purposes, it’s easy to make people in the present do your bidding.
In fact, I guess that’s what propaganda is: the purposeful twisting of words, facts, and figures to influence the thinking of people around you. When you influence how people think, you can influence how they act.
In this way, effective propaganda is like a magic spell. You say the right words and make the right “hand gestures”, and people do what you want them to.
One way to subtly twist the meaning of our Elders’ words and deeds is to focus attention on certain parts instead of others. To cherry-pick the parts that help impose a certain agenda.
This is a way of fraudulently enlisting our elders to serve in someone else’s cause.
We specifically made our “Words from the Elders” section to avoid this. We like to preserve their words, deeds and impressions so that no one can come along later and twist them. That way we’ll know exactly what Grandma said, and what Grandpa did.
Outside of “I Have A Dream”, do you know what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said and did?
We at Focus:LBK used to prefer Malcom to Martin, but we have entered a phase where we now recognize Martin’s strengths, as well as his weaknesses.
Spittin’ fly, wisdom-filled phrases like the ones below is where Martin was strong; this is how he showed us his visions.
It’s interesting that possessing Vision is an essential part of being both a leader, and a prophet.
Stay tuned for Monday’s podcast. We’ll be taking a closer look at some of Dr. King’s other speeches, and considering whether his stance on war and the “Military Industrial Complex” may have some bearing on why he was assassinated.