- 10 hours ago
Bu video Dailymotion Python SDK ile yüklendi.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Poor rich people.
00:01A striking number of films and shows today are answering the age-old question,
00:05can money really buy happiness, with a resounding no.
00:08Everywhere we turn, we're seeing unhappy rich characters,
00:11whether in Succession, The White Lotus, The Menu,
00:13or Glass Onion, A Knives Out Mystery.
00:16I know it's probably hard to have sympathy for the poor tortured billionaire.
00:19So even though today we're pushed constantly to lust after having money in our culture
00:24and having enough money is obviously important,
00:27when is it too much and why does lots of money still turn you into a bad or miserable person?
00:32This rich people shit is weird.
00:34Spoilers ahead for The Menu, Glass Onion, and Triangle of Sadness.
00:38More Money, More Problems
00:40As a culture, we are obsessed with money and watching people who have it on screen.
00:44We love reality shows that peek into how the other half lives,
00:47from older examples like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,
00:50to Cribs, to newer shows like Real Housewives and The Kardashians.
00:53But one of the reasons we enjoy these properties is due to the semi-absurdity
00:57of many of the star's crises, which couldn't exist in less wealthy environments.
01:02The souffle is probably falling in the kitchen.
01:05It's certainly true that money can solve a lot of problems,
01:08but it can also create new problems, particularly if you're part of the super-rich class.
01:14In an article for The Guardian, a therapist for hyper-wealthy clientele notes
01:17that having a lot of money can often lead to fears that people in your inner circle are just using you.
01:23Andy used to tell me the truth. Nobody does that now.
01:28It's all just fake smiles and agendas.
01:30And the rich characters we see on screen are overwhelmingly isolated.
01:34In the opening credits of The White Lotus Season 2,
01:36the picture shown over the name of Jennifer Coolidge,
01:39who plays wealthy, emotionally lost Tanya,
01:41is of a woman stuck in a tower, accompanied only by a monkey on a chain.
01:45The image mirrors Tanya's intense loneliness,
01:48the way she feels trapped by her wealth,
01:50and the way she has only chained pets like her assistant Portia around her.
01:54I feel like that if you really love me, you wouldn't leave.
01:58At the same time, many of these rich characters who fear no one loves them for them
02:02directly create a situation where they only allow people to interact with them
02:07as a rich person, reinforcing the very same kind of transactional relationships
02:12that they're afraid of.
02:12I want you to stay close, because I might need you.
02:15I just lay low.
02:17In The White Lotus Season 1, Tanya dangles a business opportunity
02:20in front of working-class hotel staff Belinda so that she'll care for her.
02:24But when she gets preoccupied by a new relationship with Greg,
02:28she suddenly leaves Belinda and the business plan behind.
02:30I latch on to somebody, and then I use my money to control them.
02:36You know, it's just, it's not healthy for me.
02:40The humor in her words, that this behavior isn't healthy for her,
02:44is revealing, because it's so clear she's not thinking at all
02:47about what's healthy for Belinda or anyone else.
02:50And too much wealth can also result in moral deficiency,
02:53because it encourages a lack of regard for others.
02:56The rich person's disconnect from the world everyone else lives in
02:59extends beyond buying a $43 billion app just for the hell of it,
03:03or racing other billionaires to see who can get to space first.
03:06It can also include the simple act of facing consequences for your actions.
03:10Though as we've seen on film and in television,
03:12the rich are able to get away with a lot,
03:14because they can pay off anyone who could enforce punishment.
03:18I'll pay you $1 billion to tell me which one of them tried to kill me.
03:21The desire to do the right thing becomes weaker,
03:24as they realize that they can essentially do whatever they want,
03:27and can lead to them callously putting other people's lives
03:30and livelihoods on the line.
03:32You get to do what you want. The authorities can't really touch you.
03:34Infinity Pool creates a sci-fi world,
03:37where the wealthy vacationers of a fictional island pay the local government
03:40to clone them so that they can commit wild,
03:43hedonistic crime sprees before safely heading back home,
03:47while their doubles pay the price of arrest and execution.
03:49We paid the detective to make another double just to have a little fun with you.
03:53In the menu, Rich Tyler hires Margo, an escort,
03:57to come with him to a mysterious fancy dinner,
04:00but because he's paying her, he thinks he can treat her however he wants.
04:03Tyler, you need to apologize to me right now. You cannot speak to me that way.
04:07Actually, I can, because ding-dong, I'm the one who's paying,
04:09so maybe shut up and eat.
04:10And he even knew beforehand that she likely wouldn't make it out of the hellish night alive.
04:15So you hired her knowing she died?
04:19Yes.
04:19In succession, Kendall Roy is tortured by his culpability
04:23for driving intoxicated with a waiter in the car
04:26and leaving the young boy to drown after the car crashes into water.
04:30But tellingly, his father doesn't care in the slightest,
04:33except that Kendall's guilt is a gift he can use to bring his wayward son back under his thumb.
04:39A rich kid kills a boy.
04:41A sad little detail at a lovely wedding
04:47where father and son are reconciled.
04:51Just as Cameron gradually grooms his newly rich college friend
04:55into becoming a more dishonest, philanderous person,
04:58there's a sense that being a true member of the wealthy elite means
05:01getting rid of those pesky moral compunctions that middle-class people get hung up on.
05:06It's time for you to shed that disgusting, larval mind of yours
05:10and find out what kind of a creature you really are.
05:13Rich characters might soothe their consciences for their typically bad behavior
05:17by donating to charity as if paying off their sins,
05:20even though their donations do little to address any real problems of structural inequality.
05:26You're rich, so you're a philanthropist,
05:28so you can cure your conscience for not paying enough in tax,
05:34not contributing enough to society.
05:36But overwhelmingly, the rich characters we watch are not particularly nice or kind.
05:40The butter's all f***ed!
05:42Now you f*** watching, you f*** it!
05:44There's dinner rolls ripping out there as we speak!
05:46And they don't seem to feel it's even worth developing interpersonal skills.
05:51They act as if the usual rules of behaving decently or
05:54nicely is only something anyone does if they have to.
05:57Again, feeding into a mindset where you implicitly think
06:00there is no intrinsic value in human bonds,
06:03that all interaction is just in service of financial transaction,
06:07and so you discount others who are worth less than you.
06:10Actually, this ends up hurting the rich character too.
06:13Tanya lashes out at a psychic who's trying to genuinely
06:16warn her of danger because she only wants to hear false reassurances that everything's fine.
06:21And eventually, she's easily taken in by con men because she just wants to be flattered
06:26instead of doing any of the more challenging work of looking honestly at her life,
06:30or paying actual attention to other people.
06:32Loving money more than people.
06:35Many of these rich people stories underline that humans perpetually look for money to solve problems
06:40that it can't.
06:41From Jay Gatsby desiring the love of Daisy Buchanan to Charles Foster Kane wanting to go back to the
06:46lost joy of his childhood.
06:48Classic literature and film are full of warnings that trying to get rich in order to find love
06:53and happiness doesn't work.
06:55In Citizen Kane's case, the path toward getting rich directly took him away from the simple happiness he
07:00felt as a kid connected to his family, which is why on his deathbed he's thinking about Rosebud,
07:04his sled.
07:05Rosebud.
07:07There's a reason for the trope of the lonely rich person who has everything except the one thing
07:11they truly want, which money can't buy.
07:13It's not just that money doesn't buy happiness, but that if you expect it to,
07:17you end up investing all of your life into amassing wealth,
07:20instead of building and maintaining the relationships that will truly fulfill you.
07:25I've gotten all these things for her, now she just wants to run away.
07:29Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy Disney, has been outspoken about class disparities and
07:34about how disconnected billionaires actually are because of their extreme wealth.
07:38As she noted in an article for The Atlantic,
07:40as wealthy people become accustomed to more and more comforts,
07:43like flying first class or even in private jets,
07:46those comforts become so commonplace that they feel like necessities.
07:50It can result, like in the character of Tanya,
07:52in a sense of weakness and incompetence,
07:54in the person feeling that they're unable to function normally without all these aids.
07:58You enable her, Phil. You buttress. You toddle.
08:03All of the adult children of billionaire Logan Roy in succession
08:06are profoundly lacking in self-confidence.
08:09While they've been falsely empowered by their extreme wealth to feel superior to everyone else,
08:14their lack of true personal achievement and expectation of a hyper-rich lifestyle
08:19makes them privately insecure with a childlike immaturity.
08:22Do you want to call your dad?
08:25Do I want to call my dad?
08:27No, I don't want to call my dad.
08:30Do you want to call your dad?
08:31So interestingly, the fundamental problem of having a lot of money,
08:35or devoting a lot of your time to getting it,
08:37is that you overvalue the role of money in human existence.
08:41You end up worshipping money, thinking you couldn't live without being rich,
08:44caring more about the money than the people in your life,
08:47and missing the significant joys of human existence that don't involve money at all.
08:51So what do you do for money then? Do you teach?
08:55You married rich.
08:56I'm in danger of becoming a charitable organization at this point.
09:00Never having enough.
09:01We often falsely imagine that wealthy people have so much money to spare,
09:05they wouldn't particularly care about giving up some of it.
09:07But in The Atlantic, Sophie Gilbert notes that for many wealthy characters on television,
09:12the curse of the privileged is that they would rather be miserable
09:15than lose even a tiny fraction of the things they've been given.
09:18We can see this play out in succession, as each of the Roy children fight each other
09:22and people around them for a shot at the CEO job in their dad's company.
09:26Even though they have everything they could ever need to build a happy,
09:29comfortable life, they're unwilling to step away
09:32and live their own lives separately from the family empire.
09:35Dad, why?
09:35This feeling that the rich person couldn't live without every bit of their money and lifestyle
09:45can even lead to a disconnect from the actual value of things so extreme
09:50it's arguably a form of insanity.
09:52In the menu, rich foodie Tyler wanted to go to this fancy dinner so badly
09:56that he didn't even care it meant literally throwing away his life.
10:01Driving away family and friends
10:03Wealth becomes even more emotionally complicated when it's inherited,
10:06as then even family dynamics center around money.
10:09Listen to what God wants.
10:11I listen to your daddy.
10:14In many families, love is unconditional.
10:16But in those with extreme wealth,
10:17family members are often pitted against each other
10:19and taught to care more about winning than supporting each other.
10:22The Roy siblings haven't learned how to talk to each other openly,
10:26only how to compete with and mock each other.
10:28Is there a thing where we, like, talk to each other about stuff normally?
10:35You want to talk to each other normally?
10:37Okay.
10:37When people's most personal and intimate relationships ring false,
10:41it can be destabilizing.
10:42Glass Onion showcases these kinds of false relationships
10:45as all the characters are essentially on Miles Braun's payroll
10:49and, therefore, hesitant to criticize him or go against him.
10:52Everybody knows who Lionel works for, that's no secret.
10:55And we know who bankrolled Claire's campaign.
10:59Yet Miles' own inability to listen to criticisms ultimately leads to his downfall,
11:03as his entire compound is blown up and destroyed,
11:06because he wouldn't accept the dangers of experimenting
11:09with a prototype chemical he thinks will make him even more money.
11:13After his ship sinks, his friends all turn against him,
11:16since they were only friends with him for his money.
11:19I saw the napkin he burned.
11:21God, now that you mention it, I clearly saw him grab Duke's gun.
11:27When money won't save you, a lot of people think wealth makes you invincible.
11:31Look, here's the thing about being rich, okay?
11:35It's f***ing great.
11:38Okay? It's like being a superhero, only better.
11:40While there's absolutely truth in this,
11:42there are certain human experiences that no amount of money can shield you from.
11:46In the menu and Triangle of Sadness, rich people are put into situations
11:50where their vast sums of money are useless.
11:53The menu's guests are invited to a fine dining experience that turns dark
11:57as the head chef announces that everyone on the island will die,
12:01including the staff and himself.
12:02The only person who is able to escape the dinner is Margot, real name Aaron.
12:06We thought I couldn't tell all I know a fellow service industry worker when I see one.
12:11She eschews the chef's expensive exclusive dishes and instead asks him for a cheeseburger and fries,
12:17appealing to his happy memories working in a greasy spoon diner.
12:20Margot understanding the value of human, non-transactional, middle-class experiences
12:24allows her to escape, and it's the one thing that none of the wealthy patrons can do.
12:29In Triangle of Sadness, a storm makes the luxury cruise boat so rocky
12:33during the fine dining experience that the guests all get seasick.
12:36The tilting camera conveys that the order of things is threatened,
12:40and the absurdity of all these guests getting sick
12:43suddenly makes their expensive food appear worthless, even revolting.
12:47Soon after this period of literal instability,
12:50an attack on the boat ends up stranding only a few survivors on an island,
12:54and one of the cleaners from the ship, Abigail,
12:56is the only person able to fish for food and start fires,
12:59so all the wealthy people become totally dependent on her.
13:02Do any of you know how to make a fire?
13:10No?
13:10No!
13:10No!
13:11The power dynamics from before are totally flipped,
13:14yet the system of oppression continues.
13:16When they are cleaning lady here, Captain.
13:20Okay?
13:20Triangle of Sadness is titled after the region in the face between the eyebrows.
13:24Can you relax your triangle of sadness?
13:29That's like between your eyebrows here?
13:31But the title doubles as a description of capitalist hierarchy.
13:34The triangle has a few people on top while those at the bottom serve them,
13:38making most people sad.
13:39And even if the triangle rotates in a different direction,
13:42it just shifts the winners and losers,
13:44and isn't truly different as long as people are living by the mantra
13:48that some people should get greater rewards than others.
13:50Do you know the amount of work I put on this island?
13:53I'm responsible for everybody here.
13:55I know, I know, I'm sorry, I know.
13:56Shouldn't that give me some kind of advantage?
13:58We often think that rich people accrue their money by being smarter
14:01or more capable than the average person.
14:03Freakin' Miles, man.
14:06Genius.
14:06But these stories make it clear how extreme wealth is highly subject to environment,
14:11and having some resource or ability that is deemed valuable in the wider society,
14:16often obtained through luck, genetics, circumstance, or immoral behavior.
14:20Miles Braun is an idiot.
14:22Ultimately, the myths we tell about money—that it'll make you happy,
14:25that some people are just more deserving of wealth,
14:27that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and achieve riches—
14:31all cover up a much darker truth.
14:33Systems that allow for extreme wealth are detrimental for people without riches,
14:37but also unhealthy for people who are corrupted and isolated by their affluence.
14:41It may be the thing we're taught to value above all else,
14:44but ultimately, as today's media proves, your money will not save you.
14:49That's the take!
14:50Click here to watch a video we think you'll love,
14:52or here to check out a whole playlist of awesome content.
14:55Don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications!
Recommended
19:41
|
Up next
20:30
10:53
Be the first to comment