Last night on WGBH - which I can still get on my computer at least - I heard most of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. Between his eloquence, his vision, and his delivery it's not too hard to see how this man moved mountains.
I had to wonder about the effect a speech like that would have in our current multimedia involvement. The entire thing would have been on YouTube, as well as the sites of all the big news organizations, within minutes. And within minutes of that the commenters would have come in with "More liberal whining. Yawn" and almost certainly some thinly veiled racial stuff.
So on balance would that kind of exposure be good or bad? I honestly don't know. We have gotten used to experiencing the world in smaller-than-life proportions, though.
3 comments:
I agree with you that it's a very moving speech to hear as it was delivered and good too that his dream came to be at least partially realized. Yes, there's still racism in the US but it's no longer written into state laws. It's sad that there aren't any visionary leaders in positions of national prominence these days because we certainly have enough problems worthy of being addressed.
You're right that everything said gets spun into the maelstrom of the 24/7 infotainment cycle. Meanwhile, far too many people seem to prefer lolcats to serious thought about our social and political responsibilities. 'Smaller than life proportions' is a good way of describing the situation.
Sure, but I have a hard time blaming people for not paying attention to serious things. People are going to do what they're going to do. You can only be responsible for yourself, really.
Kind of like the weather, eh? I'll go along with that.
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