We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent — people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.

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Our whole culture is based on the appetite for buying, on the idea of a mutually favorable exchange. Modern man's happiness consists in the thrill of looking at the shop windows, and in buying all that he can afford to buy, either for cash or on installments. He (or she) looks at people in a similar way. For the man an attractive girl—and for the woman an attractive man—are the prizes they are after. 'Attractive' usually means a nice package of qualities which are popular and sought after on the personality market. What specifically makes a person attractive depends on the fashion of the time, physically as well as mentally. During the twenties, a drinking and smoking girl, tough and sexy, was attractive; today the fashion demands more domesticity and coyness. At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of this century, a man had to be aggressive and ambitious—today he has to be social and tolerant—in order to be an attractive 'package'. At any rate, the sense of falling in love develops usually only with regard to such human commodities as are within reach of one's own possibilities for exchange. I am out for a bargain; the object should be desirable from the standpoint of its social value, and at the same time should want me, considering my overt and hidden assets and potentialities. Two persons thus fall in love when they feel they have found the best object available on the market, considering the limitations of their own exchange values. Often, as in buying real estate, the hidden potentialities which can be developed play a considerable role in this bargain. In a culture in which the marketing orientation prevails, and in which material success is the outstanding value, there is little reason to be surprised that human love relations follow the same pattern of exchange which governs the commodity and the labor market.
Erich Fromm
exchangelovepersonality-market
بعد موت النبي آدم تفرق أبناءه لشعوب كثيرة، وانحرفت عن المنهج السماوي الذي وضعه الله لها، إما بالعصيان وأن النسيان، وبالتالي أرسل الله لهم من يعد البشرية الي مسارها الصحيح، وكان الحدث بنبوة ادريس، فقد هاجر من العراق الي مصر واتخذها حصناً له ولدعوته فبنى المدن وكرس حياته لنشر العلوم، فهنا لوتحدثنا عن منهجه في الحرب، والعلم بها وتجهيز الناس لها من مأكل مشرب، فهنا استوجب أن يتبع منهج أو يتخذ من الهدى الالهي البداية في فكر اقتصادي أو تطويع أوامر الله لهذا الامر.
فنبوة ادريس هو تصويب لحياة الانسان وترشيد لموارده وتحييد سلوكه من المفرط المسرف إلي المرشّد المقتصد كما جاء في قوله تعالى "ومنهم مقتصد".
محمد الكتبي
economiaeconomicseconomics-philosophy