[Peace-discuss] Carl Oglesby on humanist liberals

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Carl Oglesby died Tuesday. I was privileged to know him slightly. The  
following is from his speech at one of the first major anti-war  
rallies in Washington,more than 45 years ago. The problem he speaks of  
remains the same. Requiescat in pace. --CGE]



Let me then speak directly to humanist liberals. If my facts are  
wrong, I will soon be corrected. But if they are right, then you may  
face a crisis of conscience. Corporatism or humanism: which? For it  
has come to that. Will you let your dreams be used? Will you be a  
grudging apologist for the corporate state? Or will you help try to  
change it—not in the name of this or that blueprint or ism, but in the  
name of simple human decency and democracy and the vision that wise  
and brave men saw in the time of our own revolution?

And if your commitment to human values is unconditional, then disabuse  
yourselves of the notion that statements will bring change, if only  
the right statements can be written, or that interviews with the  
mighty will bring change if only the mighty can be reached, or that  
marches will bring change if only we can make them massive enough, or  
that policy proposals will bring change if only we can make them  
responsible enough.

We are dealing now with a colossus that does not want to be changed.  
It will not change itself. It will not cooperate with those who want  
to change it. Those allies of ours in the government—are they really  
our allies? If they are, then they don’t need advice, they need  
constituencies; they don’t need study groups, they need a movement.  
And it they are not, then all the more reason for building that  
movement with the most relentless conviction.

There are people in this country today who are trying to build that  
movement, who aim at nothing less than a humanist reformation. And the  
humanist liberals must understand that it is this movement with which  
their own best hopes are most in tune. We radicals know the same  
history that you liberals know, and we can understand your occasional  
cynicism, exasperation, and even distrust. But we ask you to put these  
aside and help us risk a leap. Help us find enough time for the  
enormous work that needs doing here. Help us build. Help us shape the  
future in the name of plain human hope.
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