Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

garbagemen, who sought union recognition from the city authorities. Hislast public words gave a sense of the conviction, truth, and fearlessness sonecessary today and in the future. Rain pounded down on the roof of thechurch. Behind him flashed a yellow neon cross, casting colors upon hisshoulders and head. He spoke about the threats against life that day and said:It is no longer a question of violence or nonviolence in this day andage. It is nonviolence or nonexistence. Like other people I wouldlike to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But it really doesn’tmatter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountain-top … andI’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not getthere with you, but I want you to know that we as a people will getto the promised land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried aboutanything. I’m not fearing any man. 13The flow of immigrants has continued, bringing millions of Germans,Austrians, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Vietnamese, Cubans, Mexicans, Afghanis,and many more to the shores of America. They have settled in an Americathat has replaced the Age of Industrialism with a Technical Revolution.Modern warfare, atomic energy, the space program, computers, and mediasuch as television, video, and movies influence and direct a large partof daily life. Using a critical eye as Whitman did in 1871, the picture of acultural life bringing forth a true gift for the rest of humanity is blurred bythis caricature—a senseless, childish America bound to cultural isolation,suffering daily from Americanized, televised, popularized violence, poverty,and inhumanity to man. One can see lives wasted in racism, egotism,narcotics, and a false sense of national pride. Yet this caricature also wearsa mask, behind which the lives of millions of people flourish despite socialand cultural extremities and stagnation.The prophecies of Lord Bacon, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson,and Woodrow Wilson contributed to the protection of human rights and tothe growth of material wealth by commanding the world of nature. Theyhave dominated foreign and internal affairs in the United States. Will theprophecies of the Hopi, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, and Martin LutherKing, Jr., help the American people to forge, out of the tragedies of materialism,war and inhumanity, a unity of races, nationalities, and religions in truebrotherhood for all mankind?How can we create a great moral and religious civilization to justifyour great material one? How can stagnation be overcome so that we can ap-315