Nominated for Best PictureThe Wolf of Wall Street, based on the autobiography of Jordan
Belfort, a stockbroker who capitalized on money laundering and fraud, stars Leonardo
DiCaprio in a manic performance as Belfort, and is directed by Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, The Departed for which this oft nominated director won the Oscar). The scene where DiCaprio, almost decerebrate
from excess quaaludes, is hysterical (Jerry Lewis couldn’t have done it better),
and at the same time we are sickened by Belfort’s relentlessly heinous debauchery.
Were it not so hilariously farcical, the film
would be too painful to watch. It is like a car wreck from which one cannot
avert one’s eyes. What is mangled here is the better angels of our nature. This
wolf is ravenous, rapacious. Additionally, there is the sickening awareness behind
the humor of what is going on outside the movie theatre: the growing gap
between haves and have nots widening, ever widening. This country’s new robber
barons are on Wall Street and Belfort narrates for you how they do it. This
movie is not about transformation. There is no real redemption, for Belfort or
for the country. Deregulation and SEC’s failure to enforce allows human avarice
to run amuck, and this true story disheartens. Likewise, the commodities traded
here include women and I think ‘woe to the republic.’
The lure of drugs and sex and the power of
money all too easily make us lose our bearings. I would like to imagine
that perhaps people who fall off the
edge into the abyss of avarice and gluttony never had any (bearings) to begin
with, never knew fulfillment of any magnitude inside themselves and so sought
it outside themselves, the bigger the inner hole, the bigger the need for
external highs. But who among us would not be seduced?
I have this theory about drug addictions: In
infancy and toddlerhood the brain is developing rapidly. Experiences of recognition
and effectiveness and mutuality develop the parts of our brain that produce
feel good chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and endogenous
opioids. Lack of such experiences leaves our brain deficient in the capacity to
produce such chemicals. Then one day we stumble across alcohol or cocaine or
marijuana and suddenly we feel something we’ve missed, normal, good. Who wouldn’t
want to feel that way as often as possible?
2 comments:
I adore that theory of addictions. Yet how would that explain test animals addictions, and children raised in functional environments?
there is research that shows that test animals (rodents) are more likely to become addicted to substances when inadequate mothering has occurred
I am uncertain what is meant by 'functional' environments but the functions a child requires include recognition of affect and thoughts and acceptance of these so that a child takes pleasure in its own development and learns to trust her or his own sense of the world. Parents must create meaning with their children as well as a sense of a benevolent world which welcomes the child in. Even parents with the intention to love their children well can attack a child's sense of self, attack meaning, and cause a child to doubt her or his own right to be in the world when parents say things as simple as 'you're not cold, hungry, hurt, ...' when a child expresses otherwise; or when a parent says 'you shouldn't say that' when a child expresses angry frustration; or when a parent doesn't welcome a child's initiative; so many ways an otherwise functioning parent inadvertently fails to allow for experiences which enhance the brain's capacity to produce serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, etc and instead causes a child to doubt her/his own agency.
hope that was a fair reply.
thanks for reading, and sorry took so long.
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