{"id":178719,"date":"2021-02-08T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=178719"},"modified":"2021-02-05T06:13:48","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T06:13:48","slug":"contrast-todays-anti-intellectual-peacelessness-john-f-kennedys-peace-speech-in-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/02\/contrast-todays-anti-intellectual-peacelessness-john-f-kennedys-peace-speech-in-1963\/","title":{"rendered":"Contrast Today\u2019s Anti-Intellectual Peacelessness: John F. Kennedy\u2019s \u201cPeace Speech\u201d in 1963"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John F. Kennedy<\/p><\/div>\n

4 Feb 2021 – <\/em>At a time when the intellectual level of much politics has decreased dangerously, it may be useful to remember politicians who earlier on were leaders, visionaries, intellectually alert and able to communicate their message in ways that caught the attention of wide audiences.<\/p>\n

The Transnational<\/em> has many student visitors, and if you are 20-25 today you may not have had many chances to experience the mentioned qualities. So we bring you this speech to offer an opportunity to establish some comparative standard and for you to ponder the question: Why is it that politics has become so boring? Why do today\u2019s young people not queue up to participate in their country\u2019s political work?<\/p>\n

And why are there so few, as it seems, who have the sense of duty that JFK expressed so eloquently in his inauguration speech: \u201cAsk not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Our publishing of this particular peace speech can also be seen as a comment on today\u2019s visionless and generally confrontational policies of the United States of America. No high-level politician in the US of today would be able to give such a speech \u2013 or dare do it if intellectually capable to.<\/p>\n

It is interesting that American history has been full of peace initiatives on various levels \u2013 think President Eisenhower\u2019s Farewell address<\/a> in 1961 in which, prophetically, he warned the US and the world about the Military-Industrial Complex. Think the passionate and extremely eloquent anti-war and pro-peace speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. And think the anti-war, anti-nuclear and pro-peace movements that have, in various forms, shapes and intensity always been active throughout that country.<\/p>\n

But no president since then, with the exception of Jimmy Carter, has shown anything but indifference or contempt for peace, peace thinking and peace policies.<\/p>\n

None has, since then, started a speech by celebrating knowledge and truth instead of ignorance and stated that he is going to speak about \u201cpeace \u2013 the most important subject on Earth\u201d<\/em> only to plunge himself into a superb, surprising and world-encompassing definition of that \u2013 difficult \u2013 subject means. And then back it up with political proposals.<\/p>\n

JFK gave this speech on June 10, 1963. He was killed five months later, on November 22 in Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible not to hypothesize a causal relationship between that speech and his assassination by the deep state and its Military-Industrial Complex. Had what he says in that speech become the policy of the United States, it would, in all likelihood, have undermined those elite interests and we would have had a very different, benign, cooperative and respected United States today that would not be in decline and about to fall.<\/p>\n

Now listen to the whole speech and then compare with any other leading American, or Western, leader today. Pinpoint what you see as basic differences and then ask: What has happened when politicians like JFK and speeches like this don\u2019t exist today?<\/p>\n

June 10, 1963 at the American University<\/strong><\/p>\n

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