Let us consider, first, the need for a tough mind, characterized by incisive thinking, realistic appraisal, and decisive judgment. The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. He has a strong, austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment.
Who doubts that this toughness of mind is one of man’s greatest needs? Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.
Excerpt (and the ones below) From Strength to Love Martin Luther King, Jr. This material may be protected by copyright.
My academic self is enrolled in a philosophy course titled Of Monsters and Meaning. The first assigned reading is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart” from Strength to Love. I’d heard and read bits and pieces of this sermon. Reading it in its entirety is a revelation.
He continues,
There is little hope for us until we become toughminded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of softmindedness. A nation or a civilization that continues to produce softminded [people] purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.
But we must not stop with the cultivation of a tough mind. The gospel also demands a tender heart. Toughmindedness without tenderheartedness is cold and detached, leaving one’s life in a perpetual winter devoid of the warmth of spring and the gentle heat of summer. What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of toughmindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hardheartedness?
It’s beautiful. The whole piece should be read by students in high school civics (Ha! I know those don’t exist any more) and maybe broadcast on the 4th of July. I am by no means religious. Normally tying a sermon into education or government event is a strict no-no with me. But this one is worthy of being the exception.
Anyway, the reading has me reflecting on my mental toughness and emotional tenderness. I’m more and more acutely aware of past-me’s qualitative scoring on both fronts. I feel as though I’m growing, partially because of my return to the wiles & wilds of academia. Partially it is because of partner and how she makes me want to be a better version of me. Partially it is my family, with whom I have a stronger relationship than ever. I like this me and am excited to meet future-me.
Which brings this little essay to section III of Dr. King’s piece,
A third way is open to our quest for freedom, namely, nonviolent resistance, that combines toughmindedness and tenderheartedness and avoids the complacency and do-nothingness of the softminded and the violence and bitterness of the hardhearted. My belief is that this method must guide our action in the present crisis in race relations. Through nonviolent resistance we shall be able to oppose the unjust system and at the same time love the perpetrators of the system.
How apt this today. The issues of race continue, and in this charged political season with all this “us-versus-them” softminded thinking running rampant, Dr. King’s words still resonate.
We must work passionately and unrelentingly for full stature as citizens, but may it never be said, my friends, that to gain it we used the inferior methods of falsehood, malice, hate, and violence.”
Amen.
There’s a marked up version of his draft sermon at Stanford’s King Institute with notes. The edition I red is this one (not an affiliate link).
UPDATE We’re also reading Bertrand Russell’s “The Value of Philosophy” from The Problems of Philosophy. It is a philosophy class, after all. Anyway, here’s Russell’s concluding paragraph:
Thus, to sum up our discussion of the value of philosophy; Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.
That, for me, dovetails nicely with King’s words. Find it for free (it’s in the U.S. public domain) at .Standard Ebooks.
