Du Bois marked a great stage in the history of Negro struggles when he said that Negroes could no longer accept the subordination which Booker T. Washington had preached.
C. L. R. JamesRead
Today, in American imperialism, the commodity has reached its most grandiose historical manifestation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the excessive influence of consumerism and commodification in American society.
C. L. R. James observes that in contemporary American life, the concept of a commodity has evolved into a dominant force that shapes social relations, values, and culture. This grandiose manifestation signifies not just the prevalence of goods but also the power dynamics and ideological implications that accompany the commodification of everyday life, hinting at a critique of capitalist structures and their impact on human experience.
Themes
ConsumerismCapitalismCommodificationImperialismSociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on consumer culture, one might reference this quote to highlight the implications of American imperialism.
More from C. L. R. James
All quotes βTechnological discoveries are the spermatozoa of social change.
C. L. R. JamesRead
One of the surest signs of the estimated changes in the consciousness of the American proletariat is to be found in the character of the demands now being put forward by the leadership.
C. L. R. JamesRead
Capitalism has socialized production. It has brought thousands of people together in the factory and involved them in new social relationships.
C. L. R. JamesRead
I was a Labour Party man but I found myself to the left of the Labour party in Nelson, militant as that was. I came to London and in a few months I was a Trotskyist.
C. L. R. JamesRead
Property-owners are the most energetic flag-waggers and patriots in every country, but only so long as they enjoy their possessions: to safeguard those they desert God, King and Country in a twinkling.
C. L. R. JamesRead
Similar quotes
Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.
Charlotte Perkins GilmanRead
None of us live single-issue lives... That is why intersectionality is a strength, not a weakness.
Linda SarsourRead
As for freedom, it will soon cease to exist in any shape or form. Living will depend upon absolute obedience to a strict set of arrangements, which it will no longer be possible to transgress. The air traveler is not free. In the future, life's passengers will be even less so: they will travel through their lives fastened to their (corporate) seats.
Jean BaudrillardRead
Sometimes, they say, the moon is so busy with the new souls of the world that it disappears from the sky. That is why we have moonless nights. But in the end, the moon always returns, as do we all.
Mitch AlbomRead
Because these wings are no longer wings to fly But merely vans to beat the air The air which is now thoroughly small and dry Smaller and dryer than the will Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still
T. S. EliotRead
All thought of something is at the same time self-consciousness [...] At the root of all our experiences and all our reflections, we find [...] a being which immediately recognises itself, [...] and which knows its own existence, not by observation and as a given fact, nor by inference from any idea of itself, but through direct contact with that existence. Self-consciousness is the very being of mind in action.
Maurice Merleau-PontyRead