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 Obedience: The Dark Side of Financial Literacy, Sayed Hamid Fatimi delivers a bold, incisive critique of one of modern society's most sacred ideas: 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.