Fifty Shades of Greed - Wolves on Wall Street (are there any other kind?)

Watching the movie last night was an experience filled with premonitions of dark ages ahead. The house packed entertainer was a compelling narrative, well made, masterfully acted, genius genre tale of everything that is wrong with the world and society today. If the book “Fifty Shades of Grey” explores the grey areas of a sexually liberated millennium generation, then this movie, in parallel, explores the black domains of “Fifty Shades of Greed” of the corporate financial world where money reigns.

The greed of money is supreme. Rich or poor, all are afflicted by this greed. Nobody is spared. Even though we have all we need and much more than that, its still that “white tiger you get on, and then can’t get off”. Associated debauchery ensures that the poorer your character, the richer your lifestyle, so on the average you didn’t do so badly in life! So, get on the bandwagon and get rich quick or get lost in the “subway on your way home to a miserable wife”.  

The greed of the body: Torturing ‘cerebral palsy’ stages of narcotically influence mind states comes after the ‘tingling stage’, and the ‘visually impaired’ stage. But a “high” is the lowly objective achieved after mis-consuming drugs subsequent to induced vomiting and self-administered enema. You have truly arrived on Wall Street in the company of well shaven and badly behaved girls and reached the pinnacle of the profession and the nadir of all wasted human bodies littered around. There are truly no friends on “Wall Street” but who cares?

The greed of greed is the monster that feeds upon itself. Its good to want more and be more. Its good to grab as much as you can from the universe that is so abundant. A sucker and his money are soon parted, and there are suckers all around, equally greedy to make the numbers add up to more than they were originally, and the holy grail of surfing the waves of the stock market in a cocainic ‘fugazy wahzee woozy woooo’ fairy dust.

That greed is a disease is unclear and intentionally so. Criminals are glorified and law keepers are the villains in the new millennium. As disease dynamics reach epidemic proportions you need to ask yourself if you are susceptible, exposed, infectious or recovered from a past episode.

But we are all doomed to our loss of innocence and judgment day is near, and the long arm of the law eventually corners even the most wily wolf. But there is room for negotiating, so the pain is less. Everything is a trade-off in the final analysis and even justice can be bought with a quid-pro-quo. In the end, everybody wins and the real hero transforms from a wolf into a motivational speaker to teach wannabe wolves how to sell anything to anybody. You really want your kids to learn from him?

The color of greed is not grey? It comes in a broad spectrum of dazzling hues that will keep you guessing in the quest for good and right.

Aneeta Madhok, PhD.

A Dog's Death!

I am reminded of a Punjabi play I saw many years ago…… called “Longowal da kutta”. It’s a story of a dog on the India Pakistan border at Longowal, Punjab. The dog, being an animal, found its innocent freedom in crossing the border and making friends with the Pakistani soldiers at the army outpost because they would feed him meat. He would come across to the Indian army outpost and they would feed him milk. Being a dog, he would go to both camps not knowing that they were on different sides of a country border and different religions, and enemies. Both the camp soldiers came to love the dog dearly and made him a part of the camp fellowship, not knowing that the dog belonged to both places. One day, the Indian commander found the dog walking on the hillock that separated the two countries and going over to the ‘enemy’ camp. The dog was labelled a traitor immediately. On the same trip, the Pakistani Commander of the camp also discovered that the dog was two-timing him. It so happened that simultaneously they opened fire on the dog that they loved so much and who had become so dear to them and ….. of course, the dog died in the encounter. The Pakistani commander says…… “bechara kutta, shaheed ho gaya” and the Indian commander says…..”bewakoof bewafaa….. kutte di maut maraya”

Who is right or wrong in all this……is it Islam that glorifies death by violent means as “shahadat”? Is it the dog that was only being true to his hunger instinct? Is it Indians who glorify patriotism and denounce any act that is not patriotic? Or is it human nature to indulge in violent acts and then rationalise it in the name of religion or patriotism?

One of the core anchors of identity formation is identification with ideology and religion…….we are birds of one feather. In belonging to some religion, region, caste, gender (etc.) we necessarily exclude those that do not belong to the same “group”. And the stage is set for “us and them” games which escalate into conflicts that take human nature to violent extremes.

Darwin says that the strongest instinct of the animal kingdom is Self Preservation. Any observer of human nature knows that beyond Self Preservation is another instinct that is still stronger…. And that is Self Image Preservation. So in the process of defining our identity as belonging, and engaging with preserving these labels we have given ourselves, we find it rational enough to perpetrate violence on the ‘other’. We will drive ourselves to fidayeen suicide in order to preserve our Self Image and defy all Darwinian notions.

There is an inherent self destructiveness in all this.

Man’s search for meaning of “Who am I?” leads him to define himself with labels of region, religion, race, caste, gender (etc). The universe, however, is unlimited. And each human being a microcosm of the universe is also limitless. Defining also means ignoring the “moreness” that is possible. But the definition of the Self and the quest for “Who am I?” prevents him from touching this universe within.

Lekin……sab maya hai!