About the Names to Run Away from Really Fast example: How is Gekko a name to run away from? To me, it sounds more like a cute and slightly odd critter...
Azor Ahai
As I noted under the Strawman Has a Point page, Gecko isn't an example of this, and the movie is not an anti-free market Author Tract. See "Themes" on this page
. Gecko isn't a strawman of capitalism. Rather, he's a fictionalized version of a lot of shady and outright criminal traders during the 1980s. His famous speech was inspired by a real speech given by Ivan Boesky.
Are there people who like the film because they think it validates their opposition to the free market?- Probably yes. But the film is not strawmanning Gecko.
Hodor Hide / Show Replies
You have a point; the film can be read as being anti-short-term and anti-dishonesty rather than anti-free-market.
However, we're talking about a mainstream Hollywood film here. Its reasonably obvious how many people in the entertainment industry view free market economics. Yes, I am speculating that author intention was to strawman free markets, even if a more economically literate mind can read different themes into it.
The same applies to Avatar, you can read it as a defense of property rights against a government-priveliged MegaCorp (plug it into Kelo vs. New London etc). However, the intention of the authors is very clearly to piss all over Enlightenment values, modernity, Promethean human progress etc. because of the oh-so perfect Na'vi that live in perfect harmony with all living things and how evil we terrible humans are for not getting down on our knees and grovelling before the greatness of mother nature. Its exactly like the Christian myth of the Tower of Babylon, with "Gaia" in the place of "God."
I'm not saying you aren't reading the film in a defensible way. You obviously are. But I think the intention of the authors was very much an anti-free-market one (and Oliver Stone is, if I remember correctly, well-known for anti-market political beliefs).
Mind you, the "Greed Is Good" rant was an appeal to shareholders, calling out the bloated management for wasting all the shareholders' money and not having any skin in the game. There were too many executives, and they were doing a horrible job, so Gecko said, "I'll buy this company from you so I can fire these guys who are bankrupting your company for their own enrichment since you can't get rid of them yourselves. Any takers?"
It also underlines Gekko's hypocrisy. He complains about the company's executives having no interest in its future, when he himself makes his money through creative destruction
Should this be moved to Film? After all, this isn't about the actual Wall Street
So is it an example or not? If somebody can rewrite this so it's not arguing with itself, it can go back on the list.