What Does it Mean to be Radical?

A little over a week ago, Circle of Peacemakers hosted an event to remember Martin Luther King Jr. and meditate on what his legacy has to say to those who continue to build for peace today. We did this by listening to his ideas, a method that is surprisingly uncommon, and it was personally very moving for me. In the speech we listened too, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, MLK highlights his personal experiences advocating for the poor and how the plans and programs he and his allies laid out at the time were undermined by the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Then, after laying out a case for why the people of Vietnam might regard American intervention with hostility and suspicion, he calls on Americans to cease our bad faith engagements around the globe and take part in a “revolution of values” that puts humanity and the pursuit of justice ahead of greed and ideological supremacy. 

To me, MLK has a unique talent for eloquently speaking to hope and the desire for transcendence from the forces that have and continue to oppress and control us in the present day. I have read and listened to that particular speech many times before, but despite my familiarity with the material, I was moved to tears by what I heard. In the discussion afterwards, I could see and hear that many others in the gathering felt the same. A word that came up more than once during our dialog was the word radical. It stuck out to me particularly because it is a word that I have heard being used a lot lately in the context of our current political crisis in the USA. 

Every week I hear growing concern about a radical polarization that is happening within our society. In the past year, I have read fearful articles about youtube radicalizing disaffected young people with its algorithms. While perhaps not yet in full swing, it seems that a crisis is brewing and that cracks are starting to appear in the liberal institutions and narratives that have long given a critical mass of us a sense of wellbeing. In this world, the radical seems to threaten to take what little security we have left and plunge us back into the political chaos that dominated the early and mid-twentieth century.

It made me wonder what we are actually talking about when we use the word radical. This word, which functions as something like a boogieman in many contexts, is also used to describe the work and views of MLK who many Americans see as a hero. Throughout my life as a Christian, I have often heard reference to “the radical love of Jesus Christ”. Many seem to find this message of radical love to be comforting. How can we gain a coherent view of a concept that is used in such disparate ways?    

Mariam-Webster’s website has this to say about the history of the word and its common use. 

“The meaning of radical for many centuries was related to its origins radicalis meaning “root.” Thus, until recently, radical referred to the roots of words, the roots of illness, or even square roots. Later, radical was used more figuratively to mean “fundamental” and examples like “radical reform” referred to changing the very root of the system. Now radical is associated with extreme change and deviation from the norm.”

The beginning of this passage speaks best to the quality I am trying to describe when I use the word radical. God’s love often can lead to extreme changes in one’s life. It is extreme in its scope as the foundation of all existence. However, there are also times when that presence is subtle, when one must quiet themselves or they will miss it. In those quiet, subtle moments, none of the radical nature of that presence is lost  

This reminds me of the story of how God spoke to Elijah at Horeb in 1 Kings 19. To paraphrase, after facing persecution, Elijah flees to the mountain Horeb and is instructed to wait there with the promise that God would soon pass by. First a mighty wind storm passed, then a great earthquake and fire, but God was not present in them. After these extreme expressions of nature’s fury passed, a gentle whisper came. It was in that whisper that Elijah felt God, and it gave him the clarity to go back and continue the work of prophecy that God laid out for him. 

I think from this we see that an association with the extreme is the most superficial aspect of what it means to be a radical. At its most fundamental, radicalness is a quality that enables us to cut through the superficial and get to the root or core of a concern. God’s love is radical because it penetrates to our core and encompasses both the moderate and the extreme. MLK’s words were radical because, much like Elijah, he prophesied to issues which were at the core of the issues of his day. The work of building real peace is inherently radical because it requires a confrontation with the roots of injustice that make real peace impossible. 

This puts the polarization of American life we mentioned earlier into a new perspective. This new radicalization is not driving the decay of moral and political life in our country as many might think. Rather, it is a, often semiconscious, reaction to that decay. It is the swelling of an infected wound, an autoimmune response looking for answers to deep and long neglected problems which have aggravated it beyond its capacity to ignore. With this view we can see that, even though this process may be painful and dangerous, there is great potential for good in it. 

It is a sad fact that the evils MLK spoke against, the evils of racism, poverty, and war, control our collective lives at least as much now than they did when he warned us of them, and while we sometimes wax poetic about MLK’s radical ideals on his holiday or while we pick up litter at a nearby lot in our neighborhood, our society’s real commitment to these evils has grown more and more extreme. In this modern landscape, where our extreme commitment to personal greed makes even moderate calls for concern to the public good seem unrealistic, while at the same time matters of war get fast tracked through the political process regardless of cost, where racism has so separated us from our neighbors many now believe true empathy and solidarity to be impossible, we need to reconsider ourselves and take hold of a well thought-out radical perspective centered in love. Far from being the problem, radicalization could be an important part of a much needed healing process.       

Even though this radicalization may be necessary, that does not mean that the outcomes it produces will necessarily be just and loving ones. There is nothing inherently constructive to it, and the ends it produces are largely up to the roles we decide to play. A just society requires just communities with thoughtful and brave people willing to partake in radical introspection and action. It requires an openness to a radical love that may break up our common sense notions of what is good and where we fit in the world. It requires openness to processes that may cause us pain, but if we can summon the bravery to embrace the radical in such a way, the whole world will be transformed for the better.