The movie Wall Street gave us a great bad guy Gordon Gekko ( the American Film Institute named Gordon Gekko No. 24 on its Top 50 movie villains of all time) by the end of the film Gordon was convicted of insider trading. But Michael Douglas’s performance gave us one of the greatest lines in movie history “That greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.”
Later he clarified why greed is good. “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.”
Greed like most things in life is not simply black and white, there is no pure good, no pure bad, there is always shades of gray in everything when it comes to human beings. There are distinct shades and different flavors of greed. Is there Honest Greed and Dishonest Greed?
Greed is self-preservation, greed is putting yourself first. “Please put on your own mask before helping small children with theirs.” Self-preservation greed goes too far when after you put your mask you then sell someone else’s mask to them at a marked-up price.
Gordon Gekko’s greed was far reaching, some would say overreaching, destructive, damaging and needlessly excessive. That may be true. But is his greed dishonest?
Gordon Gekko was a fictional character, but one based on an amalgamation of people that Oliver Stone, including his own father. Today we can easily point to numerous persons just like this fictional character. (Donald Trump, Jeffrey Skilling, Dennis Kozlowski)
But was Gordon Gekko ever dishonest about his greed, I cannot say he was. He admitted to liking good things and the lifestyle that his greed gave him, a better place to live, a more comfortable way to live (come on who does not want a personal jet, a limousine and someone else to run pick up your dry cleaning) but most of us are not willing to put greed on that high a pedestal in our life. But at least he was honest about wanting his self-indulgence, he was forthright in his appetites, his materialism was out in the open for all to see.
But then there are people who do not want to admit that they want the finer things in life. People that try to cover up their greed, cloaking their greed in supposed good works, creating the illusion of sainted behavior, doing good deeds as misdirection, the sleight of hand that they hope nobody sees through.
One that skirts the line between honest and dishonest greed is Pastor Joel Osteen with his ‘prosperity gospel.’ He claims that his money is just a blessing from god. Funny how that blessing did not want its carpeting messed up by muddy shoes during a hurricane.
Next on the list of supposed do-gooders who seem to live the high life but at the expense of the mission of the organization they are part of is Patrisse Khan-Cullors a self-described Marxist, who bought several multi-million dollar houses with money from Black Lives Matter, money that was supposed to go towards fulfilling their mission statement: Working inside and outside of the system to heal the past, reimagine the present, and invest in the future of Black lives through policy change, investment in our communities, and a commitment to arts and culture. Now maybe Ms. Kahn-Cullors thinks she is doing that by paying her artist brother almost a million dollars for security services (he had no employees, no security licenses, and not even office space). As a lifelong security professional, it is my opinion she could have gone a bit cheaper for those services.
Then we move on to GLAAD’s chief executive Sarah Kate Ellis. The organization Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation founded in in 1985 to help change mainstream medias reporting and thus the perception of A.I.D.S. epidemic that was in the homosexual community. It’s mission statement has changed a bit since those early days but it is still about countering discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in the media and promoting understanding, acceptance, and equality. But for some reason this means it’s president of this charity with a budget of thirty million gets to spend half a million dollars on a seven-bedroom chalet for the week. There are other lavish spendings reported by The NY Times for this non-profit organization.
And speaking of the 80’s lets go back to one of my favorite examples of dishonest greed, Jim and Tammy Baker. Preachers like Joel Osteen, but in a time before the 24-hour news cycle. These two had matching Rolls Royce’s, at least three homes and at one of them my favorite extravagances, an air-conditioned doghouse with wall-to-wall carpeting. Jim was later convicted of money laundering, using money that was supposed to go to overseas missions to help prop up his Heritage Land U.S.A. amusement park.
(Sidenote: Tammy Faye Bakker, a very staunch, starched, strait-laced conservative Christian woman with a nationwide audience of approximately 13 million people interviewed a gay HIV positive pastor on her nationwide Christian show in 1985 [GLAAD founded 1985]. Her conclusion when hearing the pastors’ parents supported him. “Thank God for a mom and dad who will stand with a young person,” she stated in conclusion. “They’re still your boy, they’re still your girl, no matter what happens in their life, and I think it’s so important that we as mom and dads love through anything, and that’s the way with Jesus, you know. Jesus loves us through anything.”)
What do these four examples have in common. Working for organizations that give a mission statement or doctrine of trying to lift up their fellow man, taking in money from people that believe in the goals and aspirations of the organization, but then the people at the top adopt the lifestyles of the rich and famous with money that could be used to further the objective of the organization.
At least when people like Gordon Gekko get rich, they do it with an honest intent and stated goal of making as much money as they can for themselves and their investors. But if you give your money to a charity, knowing full well some of it will go to the salary of the people running the place you still do not think it is going to hush money for sexual misconduct with a church secretary or a ten-million-dollar home with a guest house, a pool house, and a home theatre that seats twenty.
According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth. I kind of trust a person who is openly greedy, and I think Americans kind of admire honest greed, but when someone hides their greed it leaves a bad taste in our mouths, we dislike being lied to about your greedy intentions.
Tammy Faye Bakker’s Interview with Steve Pieters
Categories: My Views On The Real World
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