“What is an Ideal society?”
A society is a group of individuals living in the same place and sharing the same values called civilization. In fact we have heard and seen different type of societies from the royal ancient Egypt to the actual modern democratic society. Different persons have different visions, Martin Luther King describes his own vision of an ideal society in “I have a dream” but let’s find out what make up his vision and compare it to others.
The world has known many political leaders who thoroughly influenced its organizational society among them, Martin Luther King. King was an African American, leader of the civil rights movements. He is known for his famous speech “I have a dream”. In his address, King brings up some painful memories; he evokes slavery and other injustice that Black people have suffered from in the past. He points out the fact that even though slavery has ended the socio economic conditions of Negros remain very deplorable compared to their whites’ counterparts. But let’s find out who was Martin Luther King? King was a black man who spent most of his life fighting against discrimination and racial segregation in the nineteen sixty’s. He was leading the civil rights movement and was claiming justice, equality of for all citizens .In fact, in his speech, he states, ” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of the former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” Martin Luther King also points out the violation of the principles “Declaration of independence”.’ Five score years ago “reminds us of another speech, “The Gettysburg Address”
He uses a lot of repetitions such as” I have a dream” followed by predictions or idealistic situations. He also uses a lot of negations”we cannot be satisfied” in the following sentence, “We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro is a victim of unspeakable honors of police brutality. We cannot be satisfied as long as our bodies ,heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in a motel of the highways and the hotel of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.” “Go back to Mississippi and Go back to Alabama, Go back to South Carolina, Go back to Louisiana Go back to Georgia”, he enumerates all these south states particularly affected by racial issues .He is prophetic in the sense that his dream is made of predictions and seems to be very confident and uses the right words and repetitions to catch his audience. He uses a lot of metaphors as strategy of comparison, “A desert state sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression” ‘” Bad check”.
However different persons and personalities have a different perception of an ideal society among them, the famous Greek philosopher Plato. Unlike Martin Luther King, Plato saw democracy as the major factor that contributed to Athens’s defeat at war. According to him the world should be led by philosophers because they are one the who not only have the required knowledge but also have the “vision of truth”. He believes that they are the one who can take the right decisions and implement strategies that will lead to success. In his work titled “the republic”, he describes his ideal society ruled by philosophers from the high class that can pass the leadership to their sons. He believes that those people should not do any hard job so that they will be able perform better in their philosophic task. However, he believes in equality between men and women and really valued intellectual discipline such as mathematics. So Plato’s model of society is exclusively based on intellectual abilities and social class. King’s vision is also similar to Lenin, a famous leader of communism. For instance, Lenin believes in the concept of equality, specially the equality of social classes and justice for everybody. But, unlike Martin Luther King, he does not believe in democracy, he thinks that it is closely related to the state which is a mean of oppression. He does not see any true actions in democracy and deplores the passivity related to it.
Martin Luther king’s speech can also be referred as a wakeup call. His speech is memorable and he is very confident and claims justice, equality through democracy. He shares some of his vision with leaders such as Lenin who believes in equality of social classes. However, he has a very different vision from philosopher such as Plato who sees his ideal society lead by a privileged class of Philosopher. So does King’s vision of a society an ideal? Nowadays, a lot of King’s dream has been achieved among them end of discrimination and racial segregation, democracy moreover, American citizens are enjoying a better quality of life, but we are still living in a society with a lot of imperfections.