What do you think?
Rate this book
Fluent in Obedience: The Dark Side of Financial Literacy
What if financial literacy isn’t the key to freedom—but a quiet mechanism of control?
In Fluent in The Dark Side of Financial Literacy, Sayed Hamid Fatimi delivers a bold, incisive critique of one of modern society’s most sacred that understanding money will save us. From budgeting apps to credit score seminars, we’re taught that personal finance is the answer to inequality and precarity. But what if this “education” is less about empowerment—and more about obedience?
This book dismantles the myths that surround financial literacy, revealing it as a cultural project designed to shift responsibility from systems to individuals. Through chapters on debt, complexity, the myth of the rational actor, and the corporate co-optation of money management, Fatimi exposes how financial advice often reinforces shame, cultivates compliance, and leaves the root causes of poverty unchallenged. More than a critique, Fluent in Obedience calls for a radical reimagining of financial education—one grounded not in self-blame, but in solidarity, structural awareness, and collective liberation.
Perfect for readers of Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor, or Thomas Frank, this is essential reading for anyone who suspects the game is rigged—and wants to understand how, and why.
In Fluent in The Dark Side of Financial Literacy, Sayed Hamid Fatimi delivers a bold, incisive critique of one of modern society’s most sacred that understanding money will save us. From budgeting apps to credit score seminars, we’re taught that personal finance is the answer to inequality and precarity. But what if this “education” is less about empowerment—and more about obedience?
This book dismantles the myths that surround financial literacy, revealing it as a cultural project designed to shift responsibility from systems to individuals. Through chapters on debt, complexity, the myth of the rational actor, and the corporate co-optation of money management, Fatimi exposes how financial advice often reinforces shame, cultivates compliance, and leaves the root causes of poverty unchallenged. More than a critique, Fluent in Obedience calls for a radical reimagining of financial education—one grounded not in self-blame, but in solidarity, structural awareness, and collective liberation.
Perfect for readers of Naomi Klein, Astra Taylor, or Thomas Frank, this is essential reading for anyone who suspects the game is rigged—and wants to understand how, and why.
39 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 6, 2025
About the author
Sayed Hamid Fatimi
9 booksSayed Hamid Fatimi is a writer and thinker with a background in physics and a passion for language, philosophy, and the human condition. His work explores themes of introspection, emotion, and the search for meaning through poetry and prose. When he's not writing, he develops software and reflects on the intersections between science, art, and experience.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 20, 2025
I was interested in this title for the way it was presented. In the UK, financial literacy was heavily pushed by our former government. Based on the agenda they were promoting, I am of the school of thought that financial literacy is a useful skill and could help reduce society’s debt issues. However, the blurb threw up some interesting points and made me question whether Sayed Hamid Fatimi makes a point in his book, Fluent in Obedience: The Dark Side of Financial Literacy. Is financial literacy, ‘a cultural project designed to shift responsibility from systems to individuals?’ The book aims to provide a critique of whether, ‘personal finance is the answer to inequality and precarity’ or whether these lessons thrown at us are, ‘less about empowerment—and more about obedience?’
Fatimi’s book was quite repetitive. The first few chapters repeatedly highlighted that financial education is about teaching obedience and maintaining an unequal society. There is criticism that whilst financial literacy is important, the lessons are taught by the people that benefit the most from the way ordinary people are able to manage their debt.
I found the discussion around the language used in the field to be interesting and thought-provoking and I was able to see where I am judged in society, which was confronting, to say the least. Fatimi portrays the idea that those who suffer from poverty the most are seen as failures in society and explains the reasoning behind this misguided ideal, whilst pointing out why the winners are so because of the inequality of the way lessons can be applied.
It is not until the closing chapter that Fatimi’s stance is overly clear, and a distinct summary is provided. This is not necessarily a terrible thing as the reframing of repetitive information serves to hammer the point home about how behavior is conditioned, and it defines the distinction between the ‘good’ poor and the ‘bad’ poor. Will this book change your life? No. What this book will do is get you thinking about deeper questions as to why financial literacy is lacking in depth to be able to help those most vulnerable to debt. It provides some key terms and loopholes that are worth investigating further so that they might work for the poorer folk as they do the rich. More than anything, this book opens your eyes and makes you examine your relationship with money more accurately. If you are in a position to earn, spend and invest money, this book is a useful resource to consult, and keep on the shelf to refer back to every so often.
Overall, the book could have been slightly shorter, or lengthened by being a bit more prescriptive with the general information missing from the financial literature curriculum. For this reason, the book is a 4 out of 5 for me.
Fatimi’s book was quite repetitive. The first few chapters repeatedly highlighted that financial education is about teaching obedience and maintaining an unequal society. There is criticism that whilst financial literacy is important, the lessons are taught by the people that benefit the most from the way ordinary people are able to manage their debt.
I found the discussion around the language used in the field to be interesting and thought-provoking and I was able to see where I am judged in society, which was confronting, to say the least. Fatimi portrays the idea that those who suffer from poverty the most are seen as failures in society and explains the reasoning behind this misguided ideal, whilst pointing out why the winners are so because of the inequality of the way lessons can be applied.
It is not until the closing chapter that Fatimi’s stance is overly clear, and a distinct summary is provided. This is not necessarily a terrible thing as the reframing of repetitive information serves to hammer the point home about how behavior is conditioned, and it defines the distinction between the ‘good’ poor and the ‘bad’ poor. Will this book change your life? No. What this book will do is get you thinking about deeper questions as to why financial literacy is lacking in depth to be able to help those most vulnerable to debt. It provides some key terms and loopholes that are worth investigating further so that they might work for the poorer folk as they do the rich. More than anything, this book opens your eyes and makes you examine your relationship with money more accurately. If you are in a position to earn, spend and invest money, this book is a useful resource to consult, and keep on the shelf to refer back to every so often.
Overall, the book could have been slightly shorter, or lengthened by being a bit more prescriptive with the general information missing from the financial literature curriculum. For this reason, the book is a 4 out of 5 for me.
Displaying 1 of 1 review