Malcolm X and the Nanny State

I'm reading Malcolm X: The End of White World Supremacy, four speeches edited and with an introduction by Benjamin Goodman, a.k.a. Imam Benjamin Karim. (As he explains in his introduction, he was initially "Benjamin 2X" when he joined the Nation of Islam. The introduction is worth as much as the speeches.)

There are lots of things that strike me when I read about Malcolm X. I am white, so to some extent I read what he writes as an adversary (by his choosing, not mine), but he's still so very worth reading. The man who looks for accuracy in ancient historical detail will be scandalized, but the student of human nature can find absolute gems. This is a perceptive man, and an honorable man (despite issues that he may have had), in the sense that he was fighting for what he sincerely believes to be The Good.

Here's one example from a news story of April, 1957, in which he addressed police officials after a black man named Hinton Johnson was (according to the story) beaten viciously by white policemen and kept from receiving appropriate medical treatment:

"We do not look for trouble," he told police officials. "In fact we are taught to steer clear of trouble. We do not carry knives or guns. But we are also taught that when one finds something that is worthwhile getting into trouble about, he should be ready to die, then and there, for that particular thing."

Yes, sir. What a perfect articulation of my feelings about power and rebellion. Powerful stuff indeed, and completely in line with the assembly, at that time, of thousands of blacks with complete discipline, eschewing violence, in support of Hinton.

Nice. But what does this have to do with taxes in New Jersey?

I was struck by this passage in his speech called "Black Man's History" (read it or listen to it):

The so-called Negro are childlike people -- you're like children. No matter how old you get, or how bold you get, or how wise you get, or how rich you get, or how educated you get, the white man still calls you what? Boy! Why, you are a child in his eyesight! And you are a child. Anytime you have to let another man set up a factory for you and you can't set up a factory for yourself, you're a child; anytime another man has to open up businesses for you and you don't know how to open up businesses for yourself and your people, you're a child; anytime another man sets up schools and you don't know how to set up your own schools, you're a child. Because a child is someone who sits around and waits for his father to do for him what he should be doing for himself, or what he's too young to do for himself, or what he is too dumb to do for himself. So the white man, knowing that here in America all the Negro has done -- I hate to say it, but it's the truth -- all you and I have done is build churches and let the white man build factories.

You and I build churches and let the white man build schools. You and I build churches and let the white man build up everything for himself. Then after you build the church you have to go and beg the white man for a job, and beg the white man for some education. Am I right or wrong? Do you see what I mean? It's too bad but it's true.

None of what follows should be seen as belittling Malcolm X's legacy or the serious strides that blacks have had to make to reach this point in history. It's more of a practical and tactical application of his strategic and even prophetic statements.

See how he admonishes his people for allowing others -- those who dominate in the culture -- to do things for them? He strikes exactly the right note with me regarding the aptly named nanny state. Corzine told us we should do stem-cell research. He also told us we should create "green jobs". President Obama tells us that we need green jobs, too, and, along with his cronies in the House and Senate, forced us to allocate three-quarters of a trillion dollars to "stimulus spending".

They want to build the factories, metaphorically speaking, and we'll end up begging them for jobs.

Worse: Reid, Pelosi, and Obama want to take over healthcare. It's just funding, of course, but those who fund are also those who build. When everyone does what the Federal Government says, and pays the Federal Government its taxes in order to pay for those gifts that the Federal Government bestows on us, isn't it then the Federal Government that is building the hospitals? Isn't it the Federal Government that is creating new medical treatments? Isn't it the Federal Government that is deciding what treatments we can get, and what treatments we can't?

And aren't we then just children? We're letting them handle healthcare -- along with our food, clothing, and shelter; along with the cars that General Motors will build; along with the salaries that AIG will pay; along with the energy we're allowed to make and consume; along with every other detail of our lives -- because we don't know how to do it ourselves, or we're too weak to, or we're too dumb to.

I could go on, but I think the point is clear. The term "nanny state" could not be more accurate. As we keep abdicating more and more responsibility to the state and federal governments, we are reverting to a childlike state. We are letting the government call us "boy". Even if I believed that the government could run things better than the collective abilities of 300 million Americans could, I would find that repugnant -- and I would hope that all liberty-loving Americans would as well.

I disagree with a lot of what Malcolm X preached, but there's no doubt that he understood people. He knew what made humans tick. He also knew what subservience meant. And he knew enough to fight it.

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