A Player, or Nothing:Exactly why are folks so disappointed with the evolution of the Gordon Gekko character as depicted in “Money never Sleeps”? I suspect that the reason lies deeper than the mere unsatisfying sensation of an itch that didn’t get fully scratched. Our expectations were high, but not met. We anticipated the resurrection of the intense, powerful Gekko persona emerging from prison older, meaner and in the mood to deliver some vengeful ass-kicking. But we didn’t get the older and meaner, “if you need a friend, get a dog” Gekko. Instead we got a guy with feelings, tears and a metro pass. This movie does not actually turn out to be “The Wrath of Gekko” as expected and so we leave the theatre feeling deprived.
But I suspect that our reaction to today’s Gekko is coming from a deeper, darker place far beneath the surface disappointment of being denied an indulgence. Our inner villain had previously identified with Gekko’s power and “greed, for lack of a better word,” and now that Gekko’s social status has diminished to a small fraction of what it once was, we feel an instinctive involuntary rejection of him. Our subconscious kinship with old Gekko has had the rug pulled from under it. What happened to the guy with the explosive violent outbursts such as, “I’m going to tear his eyeballs out and suck his fucking skull”? We understood that guy. He was enjoyable to watch.
In 1987, Gekko was a walking status symbol with a fiery temper and devilish charm. He could get away with being an asshole because people still wanted his time. But in 2010, he’s ass-kissing the powerful who’ve never heard his name to win their affection. Sad. And that inconsistency makes us uncomfortable.
But isn’t it funny how our inner ego reads status. It rejects new Gekko, once a monument of financial might, who is now stooping for the approval of others. Interestingly, it is not the approval-seeking that we reject. You telling me that the Gekko of 1987 didn’t need anyone’s approval? How about the status symbols, such as the personal jet, the art collection, the custom attire with very particular idiosyncratic details, and the bragging, e.g.:
You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it two years later, made an $800,000 profit. It was better than sex. At the time I thought that was all the money in the world. Now it’s a day’s pay.
These all serve to signify and telegraph his elevated place in the social scale.
So what does the way we react to Gekko under different circumstances tell us about the ego? It tells us that we feel a kinship with the powerful who are playing the ego’s status game, a game we understand and are all playing at some level. But we also have nothing but disdain for those playing the same game, but who are losing that game. Hate the game, not the player? No, we LOVE the game. And we love the players who win. We feel revulsion for the players that lose. And those who don’t play? We don’t understand. ♦
