Never before has the seductive market way of life held such sway in nearly every sphere of American life. This marketing way of life promotes addictions to stimulation and obsessions with comfort and convenience ... centered primarily around bodily pleasures and status rankings. ... The common denominator is a rugged and ragged individualism and rapacious hedonism in quest of a perennial "high" in body and mind.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the pervasive influence of consumerism and hedonism in American society.
Cornel West's quote highlights how deeply ingrained the market-driven lifestyle is in America, suggesting that it fosters a culture obsessed with physical pleasures and social status. He points out that this lifestyle encourages individuals to seek constant stimulation and comfort at the cost of deeper, more meaningful experiences, ultimately leading to a superficial existence driven by personal gratification and individualism.
In practice
During a speech on consumer culture, this quote can illustrate the negative aspects of modern life.
King's response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a reevaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.
You've got to love yourself enough, not only so that others will be able to love you, but that you'll be able to love others.
Profound music leads us beyond language...to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence.
And when I talk about love, I'm talking about something that's great, though, brother. I'm talking about something that will sustain you.
Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.'
Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone.
The purpose of spiritual life is not to create some special state of mind. A state of mind is always temporary. The purpose is to work directly with the most primary elements of our body and our mind, to see the ways we get trapped by our fears, desires, and anger, to learn directly our capacity for freedom.
Often times we call a man [or woman] cold when he [or she] is only sad.
It is the unseen and the spiritual in people that determines the outward and the actual.
Childhood knows unhappiness through men. In solitude, it can relax its aches. When the human world leaves him in peace, the child feels like the son of the cosmos.
People must not be forced to adopt me as their favourite author, even for their own good.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.