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“The bulk of the advertising directed at children today has an immediate goal. “It’s not just getting kids to whine,” one marketer explained in Selling to Kids, “it’s giving them a specific reason to ask for the product.” Years ago sociologist Vance Packard described children as “surrogate salesmen” who had to persuade other people, usually their parents, to buy what they wanted. Marketers now use different terms to explain the intended response to their ads—such as “leverage,” “the nudge factor,” “pester power.” The aim of most children’s advertising is straightforward: Get kids to nag their parents and nag them well.”
― Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
― Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
“أنت أبداً تَنسىَ نفسَك وقَدْرَك عند كلامِك في الله، واعتراضِك عليه، ولو ذكرتَ مقدارَك بالإضافةِ إليه؛ تكلّمتَ كلاماً صغيراً بحَسَبك، ولا تتكلم كباراً بقول: (لِمَ؟ وكيفَ؟ ولو صنعَ هذا لكان أحسنَ وأتقن ولو قال كذا لكان افصح) .. العامّةُ تقول: "لعنَ اللهُ صبيّاً أكبرَ من أبيه"، ولكن ما أوقع اللعنَ في حقِّ عبدٍ أكبرَ من سيّدِهِ، ومخلوقٍ يتكبّرُ على خالقِهِ، ومُحكَّمٍ يَتحاكمُ على مُحكِّمِهِ ! ، ما بلغَ علمُك إلى الحد الذي يزري على علومِ الشرع، وتدابيرِ هذا الربِّ سبحانه وتعالى ؟! ، ولكن هذا كله وأمثاله دخلَ من باب جهلِك بنفسِك، ولو علمتَ مقدارَك لعلمتَ مقدارَ صانعِك، إمّا تعظيماً لنفسِك فعَظِّمْ مَنْ صَنَعَها، أو استزراءً لها؛ فلا تتحاكمْ على مُحكِّمِها؛ فأنت في كلا الحاليمِ - مُعظِّماً لنفسِك أو مُعلِّلاً لها - لا ينبغي أن تَبدُرَ منك بادرةُ اعتراضٍ عليه، ولا تتحاكمْ، لكن يجبُ عليك بحُكم الصيغةِ أن تُسْلِمَ لأفعالِهِ، وتُحكِّمَ حِكمتَه.”
― صيد الخواطر
― صيد الخواطر
“The erasure of the personality is the fatal accompaniment to an existence which is concretely submissive to the spectacle’s rules, ever more removed from the possibility of authentic experience and thus from the discovery of individual preferences. Paradoxically, permanent self-denial is the price the
individual pays for the tiniest bit of social status. Such an existence demands a fluid fidelity, a succession of continually disappointing commitments to false products. It is a matter of running hard to keep up with the inflation of devalued signs of life. Drugs help one to come to terms with this state of affairs, while madness allows one to escape from it.”
― Comments on the Society of the Spectacle
individual pays for the tiniest bit of social status. Such an existence demands a fluid fidelity, a succession of continually disappointing commitments to false products. It is a matter of running hard to keep up with the inflation of devalued signs of life. Drugs help one to come to terms with this state of affairs, while madness allows one to escape from it.”
― Comments on the Society of the Spectacle
“I am a man and what I have to recapture is the whole past of the world, I am not responsible only for the slavery involved in Santo Domingo, every time man has contributed to the victory of the dignity of the spirit, every time a man has said no to an attempt to subjugate his fellows, I have felt solidarity with his act. In no way does my basic vocation have to be drawn from the past of peoples of color. In no way do I have to dedicate myself to reviving some black civilization unjustly ignored. I will not make myself the man of any past. My black skin is not a repository for specific values. Haven’t I got better things to do on this earth than avenge the blacks of the 17th century?
I as a man of color do not have the right to hope that in the white man there will be a crystallization of guilt towards the past of my race. I as a man of color do not have the right of stamping down the pride of my former master. I have neither the right nor the duty to demand reparations for my subjugated ancestors. There is no black mission. There is no white burden. I do not want to be victim to the rules of a black world. Am I going to ask this white man to answer for the slave traders of the 17th century? Am I going to try by every means available to cause guilt to burgeon in their souls? I am not a slave to slavery that dehumanized my ancestors. It would be of enormous interest to discover a black literature or architecture from the 3rd century B.C, we would be overjoyed to learn of the existence of a correspondence between some black philosopher and Plato, but we can absolutely not see how this fact would change the lives of 8 year old kids working the cane fields of Martinique or Guadeloupe. I find myself in the world and I recognize I have one right alone: of demanding human behavior from the other.”
― Black Skin, White Masks
I as a man of color do not have the right to hope that in the white man there will be a crystallization of guilt towards the past of my race. I as a man of color do not have the right of stamping down the pride of my former master. I have neither the right nor the duty to demand reparations for my subjugated ancestors. There is no black mission. There is no white burden. I do not want to be victim to the rules of a black world. Am I going to ask this white man to answer for the slave traders of the 17th century? Am I going to try by every means available to cause guilt to burgeon in their souls? I am not a slave to slavery that dehumanized my ancestors. It would be of enormous interest to discover a black literature or architecture from the 3rd century B.C, we would be overjoyed to learn of the existence of a correspondence between some black philosopher and Plato, but we can absolutely not see how this fact would change the lives of 8 year old kids working the cane fields of Martinique or Guadeloupe. I find myself in the world and I recognize I have one right alone: of demanding human behavior from the other.”
― Black Skin, White Masks
Mohammed’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Mohammed’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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