(ThyBlackMan.com) Post modern, materialistic hedonism. It is one of the most destructive things for the Black community. Our value system is now based on the pursuit of pleasure or the pursuit of things that we perceive will provide us with pleasure over the contentment gained by building supportive relationships with others, developing a thriving and nurturing 
community, and an aiming to secure a better future for the next generation.
This materialism and hedonism is expressed most vividly in modern commercial hip hop, shows like the Basketball Wives, and other entertainment. These expressions of Blackness, which present us to the globe as pleasure seeking, self-destructive robots unable to manage emotions, and prone to conflict and it is the worst expression of this materialistic hedonism.
This mindset does the following:
1. It values today alone at the expense of tomorrow and the future.
2. It promotes instant gratification, sexually, monetarily, emotionally, over long term growth and stability
3. It sacrifices long term economic prosperity for short term spending to gratify ego
4. It seeks to reap the rewards that come from hard work, self-knowledge, technical knowledge, and persistence without doing and acquiring those things.
It results in hollowed out dysfunctional communities with no capacity to truly resist the onslaught of the social systems that seek to destroy us at worst and hold us back from out intrinsic God given greatness at best.
The reformation of the Black community to achieve the greatness that is within us must be one that is developed on the philosophical, ideological, and paradigmatic cornerstone that is embedded within our history —> Love of God, love of neighbor, love of community, and the willingness to sacrifice today to gain the reward of a greater tomorrow for ourselves, our children and our children’s children.
Staff Writer; Dell Gines
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