a true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. with righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the west investing huge sums of money in asia, africa, and south america, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "this is not just." it will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of south america and say, "this is not just." the western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
a true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "this way of settling differences is not just." this business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
america, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. there is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. there is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.
*this kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against communism. war is not the answer. communism will never be defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. let us not join those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the united states to relinquish its participation in the united nations.* these are days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. *we must not engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. we must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows and develops.*
these are revolutionary times. all over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. the shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. we in the west must support these revolutions.