The question of whether humanity has a predilection toward the good is preceded by the question whether there exists an event that can be explained in no other way than by that moral disposition. An event such as revolution. Kant says that this phenomenon [of revolution] can no longer be ignored in human history because it has revealed the existence in human nature of a disposition and a faculty toward the good, which until now no politics has ever discovered in the course of events.-FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Malcolm X, in Detroit, Michigan, 1963–2 years before his assassination.
West, Cornell. Race Matters . New York: Vintage, 1994: 149-51
THE CONTEMPORARY FOCUS on Malcolm X, especially among black youth, can be understood as both the open articulation of black rage (as in film videos and on tapes targeted at whites, Jews, Koreans, black women, black men, and others) and as a desperate attempt to channel this rage into something more than a marketable commodity for the culture industry. The young black generation are up against forces of death, destruction, and disease unprecedented in the everyday life of black urban people. The raw reality of drugs and guns, despair and decrepitude, generates a raw rage that, among past black spokespersons, only Malcolm X’s speech approximates. Yet the issue of psychic conversion, cultural hybridity, black supremacy, authoritarian organization, borders and boundaries in sexuality, and other matters all loom large at present-the same issues Malcolm X left dangling at the end of his short life spent articulating black rage and affirming black humanity.
If we are to build on the best of Malcolm X, we must preserve and expand his notion of psychic conversion that cements networks and groups in which black community, humanity, love, care, and concern can take root and grow (the work of bell hooks is the best example). These spaces-beyond the best of black music and black religion-reject Manichean ideologies and authoritarian arrangements in the name of moral visions, subtle analyses of wealth and power, and concrete strategies of principled coalitions and democratic alliances. These visions, analyses, and strategies never lose sight of black rage, yet they focus this rage where it belongs: on any form of racism, sexism, homophobia, or economic in justice that impedes the opportunities of “everyday people” (to use the memorable phrase of Sly and the Family Stone and Arrested Development) to live lives of dignity and decency. For example, poverty can be as much a target of rage as degraded identity.
you’ve got to watch all the videos. You’ll get a good sense of what Hardt is referring to in the Multitude, when he refers to love as a political concept.
World wide peaceful revolution is needed urgently because the power of evil is defeating the might of GOOD.- Global warming-war-terrorism-world hunger-poverty-AIDS- Greed-Corporate immorality- Imperialism/Domination- gang violence- Increasing levels of depression- Increasing levels of stress and pressure-decreasing levels of mental health-40 hour work week- decrease in our connection to natureThe potential of humanity is the goodness, so why are our actions so blatantly contradictory to what is really GOOD? We need a drastic change in our hearts, a change in our minds, and a serious change in our attitude and actions if the goodness can prevail…. you are the solution! Change….. Do it for yourself, do it for the world, do it for the ‘goodness’. Love, it really is the answer….Peace,D
