Institutions in Popular Culture: Wall Street

Institutions have characters; they have their values, beliefs and floors, much like individuals. Here, I will examine the way popular culture perceives the character of a specific institution through examining a specific media text: Oliver Stone’s 1987 drama Wall Street.

(Whether the film reflects reality is not considered here)
While watching the film, I noted key points that seemed to expose the character of the institutions  featured in Stone’s film:

 

1. Not many women on Wall Street; the big players are all men.
2. Newcomers are treated with contempt.
3. A great deal of mental and physical energy expended to make money.
6. Dismissal of former friends.
8. Ruthless economic tactics – without any ethical regard.
9. All for the maintenance of a lavish lifestyle.
10. Disregard for truth
11. There are ‘players’ and ‘non-players’ those ‘in’ and ‘out.’
12. No regard for people’s livelihoods.
13. A culture of deceit and manipulation.
14. A sense of survival of the fittest.
15. “You do it right, or you get eliminated…” – Gordon Gekko
16. “Greed is good… greed is right… greed works… greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms. Greed for life greed of life, 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 ” – Gordon Gekko
17. A predatory approach to taking over smaller companies.
18. “It’s all about buck’s kid.” – Gordon Gekko
19. in respect to money-making Gekko has this to say: “It’s not a question of enough.”
20. The fact of money being based on speculation and fear.
21. “You’re not naïve enough to believe we are living in a democracy.” – Gordon Gekko

From all these observations, it seems that Stone’s film paints the institution of Wall Street to be utterly contemptible. Generaly, the overriding popular opinion of Wall Street and similar economic institutions is one of distrust. Inevitably connected to these entities are ideas  such as the 99% vs the 1%; a clearly negative slogan deeply ingrained into the psyche of modern western economic commentary.