 | |
| Author | Martin Luther King Jr. |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Bob Kosturko |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Civil rights, economic justice |
| Publisher | Beacon Press |
Publication date | 1967, 2010 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Book |
| Pages | 223 |
| ISBN | 978-0-8070-0067-0 |
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? is a 1967 book byAfrican-Americanminister,Nobel Peace Prize laureate, andsocial justice campaignerMartin Luther King Jr. Advocating forhuman rights and a sense ofhope, it was King's fourth and last book before his1968 assassination.
King spent a long period in isolation, living in a rented residence inJamaica with no telephone, composing the book.[1][2]
It later lapsed out of print untilBeacon Press published an expanded edition in 2010, which featured a new introduction passage by King's long-time friendVincent Gordon Harding and a foreword by King's wife,Coretta Scott King. The revamped version was highlighted as a 2011 University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries and recommended for use in teaching.[1][2]
Hope is one of the central themes of the book. King reflects on theCivil Rights Movement and discusses the question of what African-Americans should do with their new freedoms found in laws such as theVoting Rights Act of 1965. He concludes that all Americans must unite in order to fightpoverty and create equality of opportunity. King emphasizes that he is neither aMarxist nor a doctrinairesocialist; he instead advocates for a unitedsocial movement that would act within both theRepublican andDemocratic parties.[1]
Establishing a clear contrast between his own views and that of theBlack Power movement, King argues that abandoning the fight fornonviolent social change and replacing it with personal militarism tinged withblack separatism is both immoral and self-defeating. He also criticizes moderate American whites for having inaccurate, unrealistic views of the ongoing plight of African-Americans, even after legal reforms undertaken underU.S. PresidentLyndon B. Johnson, and he asserts that radical change is still not onlyjust but necessary. The then ongoingVietnam War represents, in King's eyes, an immense waste of resources as well as a distraction from pressing domestic issues, the cost in lost lives making it all even worse.[1]
Ineconomic terms specifically, the author citeseconomic thinkerHenry George'sProgress and Poverty while writing in support of broadlyGeorgist ideas, with King quoting George's text that "the work which extends knowledge and increases power and enriches literature ... is not the work of slaves, driven to their task either by the lash of a master or by animal necessities." King concludes that, rather than having a merewelfare state or a generalclass struggle,U.S. government measures should act more directly to benefit individuals by some kind ofguaranteed income:
I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective—the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.
— From the chapter titled "Where We Are Going"
The philosopherCornel West remarked:
Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the greatest organic intellectuals in American history. His unique ability to connect the life of the mind to the struggle for freedom is legendary, and in this book—his last grand expression of his vision—he put forward his most prophetic challenge to powers that be and his most progressive program for the wretched of the earth.[2]
King's argument for abasic income system to improve theU.S. economy and statements againstwealth inequality have been cited by a wide variety of later publications. Examples include academic and economistGuy Standing's 2014 bookA Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens and professor P.L. Thomas' 2012 bookIgnoring Poverty in the U.S.: The Corporate Takeover of Public Education.[3][4] The revamped 2010 version of King's work was highlighted in a 2011 University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries, and was recommended for use in teaching.[2]
