The battle for freedom is not just that of the Black person, but of every American citizen, and King finds the default of the supposedly moral white moderate more disturbing than the unadulterated hate of the white segregationist. The longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer expressed a similar view, saying that power corrupts the few while weakness corrupts the many. Likewise, the church, says King, has failed in its moral duty. Time alone will not cure injustice. Time, he says, is neutral.
Human progress depends upon human involvement, hard work and the reassertion of human dignity.
His second principle reaffirms that the birthright of all Americans is freedom. We are extremists one way or the other, either for justice or for the preservation of injustice. This message has been the purveyor of injustice, to reaffirm its first principles and rectify that failing. He speaks of moral law, just as the Declaration of Independence talks of the Laws of Nature and of Nature s God. Any law which degrades human personality is unjust.