Dr. Martin Luther King: One Day Children Will Ask ‘What is War?’

I spend a lot of time analyzing foreign policy and strategy and sometimes find myself consumed with the motivations of state actors and policies rather than the direction that these policies trend towards. It is important for me (and you) to be reminded of a bigger picture and the possibillities of a more humane world. Dr. King is a reoccuring source of inspiration for me and I share with you a passage that I read a few times a year to help remind me what I value.

One day,

Youngsters will learn words they will not understand,

Children from India will ask: “What is hunger?”

Children from Alabama will ask: “What is racial segregation?”

Children from Hiroshima will ask: “What is the atomic bomb?”

Children at school will ask: “What is war?”

You will answer them, you will tell them: “Those are words not used any more,

Like ‘stage-coaches’, ‘galleys’ or ‘slavery’,

Words no longer meaningful,

That is why they have been removed from dictionaries.”

 Martin Luther King

Quotes: Spykman on Power

There is a tendency, especially among certain liberals and many who call themselves idealists, to believe that the subject of power in the international world should not be spoken of except in terms of moral disapproval. They consider that studies concerning the organization of peace and security should deal only with the ideals of our democratic civilization and visions of a better world order in which power will play no part.

As a matter of fact, political ideals and visions unsupported by force appear to have little survival value. Our Western democracies certainly owe their existence and preservation to the effective use of power, either on their own part or on the part of an ally.

– Nicholas J. Spykman

From: The Heartland Theory

“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules the World-Island controls the world.” – Halford Mackinder