Scott
Puritan Board Graduate
I watched the 1980s movie, Wall Street, recently. I had forgotten that Gordon Gekko's infamous Greed Speech appealed to evolution. For those who have not seen the movie, Gekko is the villain. He is a predator, a corporate raider and modern day robber barren. He is greedy, cruel, and willing to sell his own mother to make a dollar. He uses money to seduce the hero, Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen), into white collar crime. It is a gripping movie with a good message (greed is bad and can lead to all sorts of wrong behavior), although the language and one or two scenes are not appropriate.
Anyway, here is an excerpt from the Greed Speech (which is great - Douglas is really at the top of his game here). The speech is at the shareholder meeting of a corporation he is trying to take over. He chastises the inefficient board of directors.
What is interesting to me is how naturally evolution fits into a Gekko outlook on life.
[Edited on 3-14-2006 by Scott]
Anyway, here is an excerpt from the Greed Speech (which is great - Douglas is really at the top of his game here). The speech is at the shareholder meeting of a corporation he is trying to take over. He chastises the inefficient board of directors.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting how Oliver Stone and the screenwriter could so effectively (from a rhetorical perspective) use evolution to justify selfish and savage conduct (which the movie depicts Gekko's corporate raids to be). It conjures up (to me at least) images of the weak and helpless dying in favor of the strong. And it is time for the weak Teldar board to fall under the stronger Gekko - to be eliminated (Gekko's predatory gaze at the board when he says the "eliminate" line is priceless).The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated.
In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you.
I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
What is interesting to me is how naturally evolution fits into a Gekko outlook on life.
[Edited on 3-14-2006 by Scott]