Martin Scorsese's Film The Wolf Of Wall Street

In Martin Scorsese’s film The Wolf of Wall Street, there is a scene where Mr. Hanna, a veteran stock broker on Wall Street, shares his strategies with a young, rookie broker. While Mr. Hanna may appear as a greedy, crude, and ill-mannered individual, he shares what seems like a very exploitative way of working with his clients. Upon first watching the scene, Mr. Hanna, appears to be sly and devious; however, he sheds light on critical problems in our modern culture – misinformation, a lack of contentment, and mindless following. Mr. Hanna describes how his clients will blindly follow whatever he tells them so that they can continue to make more and more money. The clients will always listen to what he tells them, without making many of their own decisions. As Mr. Hanna says in the film, “…another stock to reinvest his earnings and then some; and he will every single time” (Wolf of Wall Street, The). While at first instinct, the blame may be put on the broker, Mr. Hanna, for being sneaky and misleading, the real problem is found in the client; the client wants to be

To follow is thesis, Postman primarily attributes this phenomenon to television and media and focuses on that side of the issue. He describes how television engages the audience by always offering something new and different, even though it may completely lack relevance or context. The media knows that the viewers will always want something new. He explains this problem by writing:

Of course, in television’s presentation of the ‘news of the day,’ we may see the ‘Now…this’ mode of discourse in its boldest and most embarrassing form. For there we are presented not only with fragmented news but news without context, without consequences, without value and therefore without essential seriousness (Postman