DR. KING ON THE BOOTSTRAP MYTH

On this day in 1964, Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest recipient in history. He reminded the world that injustice runs deeper than individual effort: “It’s a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.” King understood that poverty, racism, and war were not accidents but were built into the U.S. system.

Since then, the award has been handed to some of the most notorious figures of our time. Henry Kissinger shared it with Le Duc Tho for the Paris Peace Accords, even as he oversaw U.S. bombing campaigns that killed hundreds of thousands in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Le Duc Tho refused the award in protest, while Kissinger accepted it, prompting resignations within the Nobel Committee.

Menachem Begin, leader of the Irgun militia responsible for massacres during the ethnic cleansing of Palestine known as the Nakba, won alongside Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in 1978. Barack Obama received the prize just months into his presidency, later expanding drone warfare, destroying Libya through NATO, backing the Saudi war on Yemen, and increasing global arms sales. And most recently, María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s far-right opposition leader, has openly called for U.S. sanctions, coups, and even military intervention against her own country.

It’s worth remembering that this award was once given to someone who actually deserved it. King spoke not only against racism but also against war, colonialism, and the hypocrisy of empires that preach peace while spreading violence. His words still echo today: “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is my own government.”