Bud Will Never Become The Gekko He Once Worshipped

Bud Will Never Become The Gekko He Once Worshipped

Wall Street has always been a love-hate term, and if you aspire to be the financial elite, you'll be proud to work in Wall Street. But if your company goes bust because of Wall Street's financial operations, then you will think it's a place full of sin. Profit is the essence of the enterprise, but can people resist the lure of money in the process of making profits? The Wall Street film tells the story of the greed and moral laws that took place on Wall Street.

At the beginning of the movie, in addition to the crowded elevator and busy office that can be seen in other movies, the special one is the first line of the protagonist: "Morning, Dan, what's looking good today?". The word "Wall Street" has gone beyond the street itself, it could even refer to financial markets and financial institutions that have an impact on the entire US and even the global  economy. Like Gordon Gekko's man, Leo, "the terminator" hyper, makes a lot of money by hyping a company stock. So, in Wall Street, you can see the greatness of a company, and you can also see his ugly face of wealth. Gekko, a financial tycoon played by Douglas, has been a juggernauts in the stock market, and he is a greedy, aggressive and controlling man. But is is clear that this character is either obnoxious or downright worshipping. So, people on Wall Street believe that "if you can't be a real player, you can only be nobody." It's also he culture of Wall Street.

As Bud becomes the devil around his family and friends, he is moving from the edge of moral and law to the abyss of greed and evil. We can see that when he first uttered the secret of the company that his father works in, Bud was still full of fear and insecurity. But in the lure of money, status and beauty, he no longer felt ashamed for such violations and worked hard to gather information for Gekko. Fortunately, at the end of the film, Bud realized that the greed for money was never enough. He said that "I'm just Bud Fox. No matter how I've ever wanted to be Gordon Gekko, I'm always just Bud Fox."

But greed, sometimes, is not a negative word. Man is greedy, the process of every man's struggle is a history of personal greed. As Gekko said at the shareholder meeting, "Greed is good, greed is right, greed is useful, and greed inspires human motivation. Greed, you remember what I'm saying, not only to save the Teda Paper, but also to save the dysfunctional America."

The clash between human greed and moral law have never stopped. Greed is the devil, is a flood beast, will devour our souls and tear our hearts and bodies. But we must also maintain the necessary greed, to knowledge, to life, which is also the motivation for us to strive forward. As Engels put it, human greed, desire and insatiability are the levers that propel human history forward. But the balance between the two can be solved by only one self.

Maybe we can take consolation in Kant's words: there are only two things can let our hearts feel deeply shocked in this world, one is the brilliant sky above us, the other one is our lofty moral law.