Rich Slaves, Happy Servants, Idiotic Consumers...

[Don1]

...All producing NOTHING
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMin...0275615413044/

[Islandman]

I have never liked the comparison of professional athletes with slaves. It's not even that they are payed well although that is part of it, it is that slaves had no option but to be slaves, athletes do.

I don't think there is anything dishonorable about being a professional black athlete and Farrakhan in that piece insinuates that there is. His criticism of well paid athletes in terms of how they mishandle their high income is much more productive in my view. Given how often it happens it must be something about the sh!tstem and not just the individuals alone. These guys could be transforming their communities , not through charity but through human and capital investment and somehow that never enters their minds.

[Don1]

I agree..on the surface level. But he is using something people worship i.e. successful athletes.... to make a larger philosophical point. Maybe harshly but that's his style

His point: No matter how successful we feel we are individually....as long we are mere hirelings it doesn't amount to much in the big picture. It is ownership of productive assets that we should value....not highly paid servants

Plus what compounds it is that these athletes usually:
Engage in ridiculously lavish consumption
Go broke
Or if they don't go broke....they definitely don't reinvest in their communities

In short...for all the adulation they get...they're generally NOT good role models for Black people

Unfortunately the adulation results in millions of kids wasting time and energy bouncing balls or running up and down all day trying to become professional athletes.

The success rate is about 0.00001%. We remember the few hundred successes. The millions of failures we see in McDonald's or step over in the street

[Islandman]

Yeah depressingly low success rate. The more they pay them it seems the faster they go broke. Pathetic.

[Karl]

I agree..on the surface level. But he is using something people worship i.e. successful athletes.... to make a larger philosophical point. Maybe harshly but that's his style

His point: No matter how successful we feel we are individually....as long we are mere hirelings it doesn't amount to much in the big picture. It is ownership of productive assets that we should value....not highly paid servants

Plus what compounds it is that these athletes usually:
Engage in ridiculously lavish consumption
Go broke
Or if they don't go broke....they definitely don't reinvest in their communities

In short...for all the adulation they get...they're generally NOT good role models for Black people

Unfortunately the adulation results in millions of kids wasting time and energy bouncing balls or running up and down all day trying to become professional athletes.

The success rate is about 0.00001%. We remember the few hundred successes. The millions of failures we see in McDonald's or step over in the street

How do you judge success?
Yes, we all strive (at attaining competence at something)...

Example:
...how many who wish to become doctors of medicine become doctors of medicine? ...and how many of those doctors of medicine become 'successful' doctors of medicine? ...or football coach-teachers? ...or whatever?

...so what do we believe? All those who worked at being their target and failed, it was a waste?

Next - Do the kids bouncing a ball stop being users of brain to improve selves in other areas? ...what %age end up being successful...PERIOD! Not that limited area of 'bouncing ball area/discipline'? Successful?...PERIOD!

[Islandman]

Next - Do the kids bouncing a ball stop being users of brain to improve selves in other areas?

Unfortunately a disproportionately high number of black boys do just that. All kids dream of becoming superstars at some point in their young lives, but while some have the support system to guide them when those dreams inevitably don't come true for all but the .00001%, too many in our community lack that safety net and make preparation for little else in life.

I would recommend that sports fans try to watch this documentary-movie about a kid named Lenny Cooke whose basketball talent was spoken about with Lebron, Carmello and others while in high school but made some really bad decisions and took even worse advice. Most of it is footage and interviews with him when he was seen as a top high school prospect. All the wrong attitudes are already self-evident.

This is the trailer:

https://youtu.be/azMPhSg_hoo

[Mosiah]

It's easier to become a medical doctor than a pro athlete. And if yuh don't want to become a doctor, choose almost anything else!

[Don1]

How do you judge success?

We judge success by data analysis. I gave some outcomes based on data. It indicates clearly that as a group Black people are unsuccessful. ...compared to other groups.

Data also shows the massive extent to which Blacks engage in sports/entertainment ...and the extremely low rate of conversion of that engagement to income earning or asset owning activity.

That indicates to me that sporting/entertainment activity is a net negative for Black people and should be de-emphasized. More productive activities should take a larger percentage of our time...if we are logical and progressive people. Unfortunately we are not

[Jawge]

But some would call the Robotic scientist an educated middle income slave (regardless of race). What say you to that?

[Don1]

But some would call the Robotic scientist an educated middle income slave (regardless of race). What say you to that?

A case could be made for that label....but that's missing the point. The point is system responses and outcomes not mere labels.

If Black people were to focus on robotics to the extent we currently focus on sports or entertainment. ...I guarantee we would create massively more value. So the path to increased income and productive asset ownership would be massively enhanced.

Especially so since robotics REQUIRES critical and logical thought.....and is a fulcrum of 21st century progress.

Ah suh di ting set

[Jawge]

You are merely assuming. Since the days of Aristotle; it was said that if one has to specialize one is a slave. meaning whether the economy, family or anything causes one to specialize then one is a slave (this is what separates the aristocrat class from all) The point was brought to bear during the great depression. I'm done talking.

[Don1]

Good that you're done because you make zero sense here

I'm not saying Black people SHOULD specialize in any one field. We should focus on the set of activities that bring maximum progress.

I just used a hypothetical to educate you on what a systems approach is vs the shallow labeling you came with on robotics