The Universal Aphorism Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You’d block your ears from a loud, piercing sound, and you’d put bandages on your scars to cover them from impurities. You’d expect that the opposite of something can beat or cure it, just like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” However, from time to time, from the smallest bickerings to historical events and terrorist acts, you’d see the pattern of hate and fear stacking on each other, with hopes that the hatred will end itself. Often times, this method fails to completely solve the problem between the two sides; it just adds more heat to the hatred. Therefore, this universal aphorism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is proven

Suppose that you’re in a cave, and there are two ends: one end with light and one end filled with darkness. You’d probably run into the end with light in order to escape the cave. However, if you think that you’re brave and venture deep into the cave where darkness awaits, you’d probably end up lost and be blinded by darkness, just like how the prisoners of Plato's Allegory of the Cave are blindfolded by the solid foundation of false knowledge about a world made out of shadows because they’re trapped in a dark underground cavern their whole life. However, one of the prisoners managed to escape the cave by following the firelight that created the shadows and found the entrance to the cave, similar to how you’d follow the bright end of the cave and escape. That prisoner is able to fathom the truth that there’s a world outside the cavern and there’s the sun giving human life and the ability of vision, which symbolizes your emancipation from the dark cave’s gloom. In other words, you are no longer lost and blind inside the cave you were once trapped in. Therefore, by following the light, you’re able to escape the cave without any problems and to see your surroundings whereas if you find the dark side intriguing and decide to venture deep into it, you’d be greeted with many more unknown dangers or simply get lost in

An epitome of dwelling deep into the “dark side of the cave” can be observed in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird. In the novel, Bob Ewell, a white man, accused a black man by the name of Tom Robinson of raping his daughter, but then found himself greatly humiliated by Atticus Finch, the lawyer defending Mr. Robinson, because Atticus had not only proven that Tom was being falsely accused, but also Ewell’s abusive lifestyle and his violent attitude toward his daughter was foiled by Atticus. Angered and shamed, Ewell plotted a revenge on Atticus by attempting to slaughter Atticus’ children, Scout and Jem, and he failed miserably because Boo Radley, the Finches’ neighbor, killed Ewell in an attempt to save Scout and Jem from the hands of Bob Ewell. This scenario shows that dwell into hate only adds more vitriolic hate and risks onto oneself. In this case, Bob Ewell had dwelt too deep into hatred and as a result, he was defeated by the neighborly protective love of Boo Radley toward the Finch children. On the other hand, real-world events confirms that the unity and love of people around us can hold our ground to hate. For example, the Manchester Arena bombing that happened on May 22th of last year left twenty-two people dead and at least 64 others