Cecil (CJ) John
4 min readJul 29, 2021

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Designer Labels — Oppression by Consent in the 21st Century

When I moved to Miami 6 years ago, I was deeply materialistic. I’m not ashamed of this, though I do have my regrets. I shudder when I think about how much I spent on luxury German vehicles over a 20 year period. That monthly amount if it had been invested instead would easily be worth millions of dollars.

The thing though is I was never living above my means. My good friend Wilfred, a fellow Brainiac and high school “Valedictorian” from back in the days, often teases me, about my flamboyant “London East End” days. I always did love flashy cars, and designer fashion, but in all sincerity, I held off on even buying my first car until I owned a home, and I was 21 when I made my real estate debut.

What has all this got to do with the quote from Roosevelt above? In my opinion, what’s lower than SMALL MINDS is that poverty mentality, that talks and thinks about “designer labels.” This is the underclass of the 21st Century.

HELP ME PRAY FOR OUR CHILDREN

Maybe it’s because I live in Miami, but I’m telling you that the obsession with BLING in this place is disgusting. To my benefit, it turned me off materialism, as I definitely didn’t want to be perceived as the archetypal resident. I haven’t owned a vehicle in 5 years, and am so fulfilled with my one-bedroom condo.

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Cecil (CJ) John

Architect | Computer Scientist | Author | CEO Virtualdeveloper.com, LLC: Blockchain, Azure Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence.