President Eisenhower and Dr. King on Peace and Human Nature Journal Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., began his rise to fame while President Dwight D. Eisenhower was at the height of his prestige. They offered two contrasting views of human nature and peace. Eisenhower saw desire inevitably leading to selfishness and conflict. His concept of peace was based on voluntary restraint of desire, which ultimately meant restraint of historical change. In King's vision of the beloved community, desire coming from the center of each person's being could be fulfilled with no danger to the community, because all people are inherently connected in “a single garment of destiny.” For King, peace was nonviolence: the process of making the beloved community real in the present historical moment. Thus, King saw no need to restrain change. After fifty years, the U.S. society is still dominated by Eisenhower's view. But King's view remains a viable realistic alternative.

publication date

  • January 1, 2008

has restriction

  • closed

Date in CU Experts

  • November 22, 2014 4:35 AM

Full Author List

  • Chernus I

author count

  • 1

Other Profiles

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0149-0508

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1468-0130

Additional Document Info

start page

  • 114

end page

  • 140

volume

  • 33

issue

  • 1