Originally published January 15 2014
Movie Review: The Wolf of Wall Street depicts lust for materialist excess lurking in the hearts of men
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) I haven't posted a movie review in a while, but The Wolf of Wall Street is worth writing about... and not for the reasons you might suppose.
The Wolf of Wall Street depicts a raging, cocaine-snorting, sex-addicted Wall Street junk bond con artist who scams his way into huge profits, sexy women and a life of extreme materialist luxury. Brilliantly played by Leonardo DiCaprio -- who once again proves he's one of the most gifted actors alive today -- the main character in the film reflects the lust for materialist excess that lurks in the hearts of most men (and quite a few women, for that matter).
Sex, money, drugs and power... all at the expense of someone else's loss. The material riches acquired by the Wolf character are dishonestly acquired by scamming the public out of their hard-earned cash through a penny stock "pump and dump" operation. In this way, the Wolf of Wall Street reflects the reality of a society where everybody seems to be trying to scam everybody else out of their money.
The "Wolf effect" lives on today in the greed and arrogance of many
Being a person who happens to know many high-level, successful people in a variety of industries, I've seen this "Wolf effect" at work in a great many people. Even in the natural products industry, I know some "Wolf-type" people who are raging lunatics obsessed with greed and deception, yet their public persona comes off as a highly spiritual "guru" person of some sort. (And no, I'm not referring to David Wolfe here, if you're guessing that. David Wolfe actually goes to great lengths to check out what he's selling, making sure it's very high quality. He has a following and he's very persuasive, but he's positive-minded at heart and would never knowingly cause harm to someone else.)
Take almost any man off the street, give him a way to earn outrageous riches at the expense of someone else's loss, and 99% of those men will scream, "Sign me up!" Take away all limits normally imposed by a small salary and most men will go totally crazy with sex, material luxury, drugs and a power trip. I've seen it firsthand. I know people who are still caught up in this.
Kevin Trudeau comes to mind in all this. Many would say Trudeau is the "Wolf" of infomercials. A brilliant persuasion artist, Trudeau never quite made good on all his promises. The things he pitched on television were riddled with fluff and deception. That's partially why he is sitting in prison right now as a result of being hounded by the FTC. His GIN (Global Information Network) was hyped and sold in precisely the same way depicted by the Wolf character at the end of the film, in fact: seminars with rooms full of everyday, trusting people who were all seductively attracted to an arrogant, charismatic con man who saw them as little more than suckers.
Con artists, scammers and deceptive persuasion exploiters are everywhere
If you look across the internet, in fact, there are a large number of people operating right now who I would consider to be con artists. Many have achieved top positions by wildly exaggerating claims, knowingly inventing fake stories, pirating other peoples' work or just flat out bullying everyone around them to get their way. This approach leads to the short-term appearance of success but it always implodes; usually quite dramatically and suddenly.
As a specific example of this, consider the nutritionist scam artist, now dead, named Aajonus Vonderplanitz. The man came across as a raving lunatic who charged people hundreds of dollars per "consulting session" to tell people to eat their own feces as a form of self-vaccination. He also prescribed three-day-old rotten meat to "cure cancer." In 2012, I exposed Vonderplanitz as a fraud who faked his PhD academic credentials so that he could demand people call him "doctor." (I have since uncovered many other faked PhDs, even among some very prominent people in the healing industry, but I have not made pursuing these stories a priority.)
Astonishingly, Aajonus' personal charisma and made-for-TV facial features allowed him to attract a number of groupie followers, some of whom still irrationally believe Aajonus was some sort of saint. Vonderplanitz was also key in convincing the Ventura County DA's office in California to charge James Stewart (of Rawesome Foods) with felony crimes. Those charges are still pending, by the way, even though they have no basis in law or fact.
My widely-read article about "sociopaths" (click here to read it) was largely written with Aajonus Vonderplanitz in mind.
The true measure of a man is what limits he sets for himself when he has no financial limits
Most people utterly lack maturity. Most people grow up as childrens' minds in adult bodies. The only reason they don't go totally crazy with sex, drugs and power trips is because they can't afford all those habits.
The way to know the real measure of a man is to see what he does when he has no real limits in the material world. Does he spend his time snorting coke and banging prostitutes? Or does he diligently work to serve humanity in some important way?
Wealth alone is meaningless. Self-gratification is for hedonists who really don't matter in the big picture. True success means honoring yourself, your body, your spirit and your world. True success is measured in the number of lives you help uplift, not in the number of grams of cocaine you've snorted off a naked woman's butt (as is depicted in the film).
This is partly what I think this film is attempting to depict. The screenplay screams out the message of just how empty and unhappy this man's life is, despite all the signs of financial success that other people might envy. That's the accomplishment of this film, at least from my point of view: the film doesn't celebrate insane materialism, it shows how empty and meaningless it all is.
Someone of lesser maturity might mistake the film as a celebration of excess, but the message actually goes far beyond that. The film is a condemnation of the behavior and a call to remember the things that really matter in life: integrity, family, ethics and morality.
The Wolf of Wall Street is a warning of the cost paid by all who walk the path of immoral self gratification
Ultimately, this is a film that reflects the darkest desires that lurk in the hearts of all men who lust after greed, power and fame. I've seen countless people fall into this self-destructive spiral, almost always from the point of view of total self-delusion about what's really happening. It's much like in the Lord of the Rings where most men cannot resist the seductive pull of the Ring of Power. They wear the ring and become arrogant, belligerent tyrants who wield power with the maturity of a child. But they delude themselves into thinking they are somehow a good person, even as their own actions are despicable, deceptive or harmful.
My advice to everyone is to always be extremely skeptical of high-charisma people. This includes President Obama, who himself is a seduction master operating in the political realm. Beware of people who use seductive words to bypass your sense of reason. Check in with yourself from time to time and ask, "Is this really true?"
How to be skeptical of all who make outrageous claims
My favorite question these days, in fact, is, "How do you know?" When someone tells me they have an incredible new nutritional product that removes heavy metals (or whatever), I ask them, "How do you know?"
This question often disarms "loose thinkers" who aren't engaged in rational thought. If they can't say how they know, then their beliefs are probably based on mythologies or wishful thinking, I've found.
Don't believe investment brokers who promise you unrealistic gains (Madoff, anyone?). Don't believe nutritional experts who claim you can cure cancer by eating outrageously gross things. Don't believe detox retreat owners who hide behind fake "doctor" credentials. Don't believe people who jump up and down and get all excited about pushing some product yet who have no real knowledge of how that product is supposed to work in the first place.
Be wary of exaggeration, deceptions and outright lies. I know of people in the natural products industry right now who are still selling lies to gullible "suckers" as they call them. I exposed one of these scam artists two years ago, but there's a new scam operation launched almost every week, it seems.
Trust but verify
Trust whomever you want, but verify what they say is true. This is the whole point behind our new heavy metals labs at Labs.NaturalNews.com -- we are verifying the actual elemental composition of not just industry health products but also our own products.
This is being done so that you can see the reality of what's in the products you're buying and consuming. Many of the products containing the highest levels of contamination turn out to be "USDA certified organic" products, by the way. So the idea that "organic" always means "clean" is utterly false.
Apply your skepticism everywhere: Don't trust politicians who make promises. Don't trust advertising. Nearly all TV advertising is blatantly false and misleading. Nearly all drug advertising is fraudulent. Vaccine promotions are wildly fraudulent and deceptive.
Don't trust conventional doctors. They know almost nothing about nutrition. They are experts in diseases and pharmaceuticals... and little else.
Don't trust any new power grab by any government entity. All government entities seek to expand their power at the expense of your liberty. If you surrender your liberties to them, you will never get those liberties back. Governments routinely conspire to use fear tactics to usurp power from the People.
Realize the world is full of sharks
Be a critical thinker and realize you are living in a world full of sharks, many of whom play the roles of gurus, or spiritual leaders, or sometimes even patriots or priests! People wear masks and engage in elaborate theater to convince you they're something other than what they really are. In truth, most people are driven by greed, spite, fear, anger, revenge and other negative traits. Very few people are truly driven by compassion, love for life, a desire to contribute to society or other positive traits.
As the editor of Natural News and now a food scientist, I try to live each day with these important principles in mind. A day lived in service to the betterment of humanity is a day worth living. A day lived in anger, or hatred or greed is a day wasted. I've lived far too many days in anger, and I'm not going to waste another day on such negativity. The totality of our life is aggregated day by day, decision by decision, built up over time until the day we leave this life. On that day, when you look back at the life you lived, will it be a life lived with honor, humility and compassion? Or will it be a life of greed, deception and destruction?
Only you can make that choice. No one else can choose it for you. And regardless of what masks you wear in public, or socially, or professionally, you will die one day and face the full impact -- positive or negative -- of the life you have chosen to live. I pray that your day will be one of celebration for a life well-lived rather than sorrow for a life wasted.
As far as the Wolf of Wall Street movie goes, if you choose to see this film, do so from the perspective of watching a man destroy everything that matters.
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