Calvin Berman's thoughts on success after seeing "Wall Street"

This weekend, the hottest movie at the box office was the horror "Paranormal Activity 2," pulling in $40.7 million according to Deadline. I had a hunch this would happen.

However, I made a conscious decision not to go see the movie; I hate horror movies. It's not like I'm afraid or anything... I just don't like them, OK?!

Instead, I saw Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," which has pulled in a respectable $50 million since its Sept. 24 opening, according to Los Angeles Times.

(Source: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?fbid=431948922484&set=a.439289157484.241104.277054837484 )

Coupled with its surprising mediocrity (maybe I was just over-excited to see "Wall Street"), this movie suggests a correlation between financial success and corruption: an argument I have fought through out my life. In the film, not one successful character has a clean record; everybody with money either cheats and lies, or works with people who cheat and lie.

For many students, myself included, going to school is simply a stepping stone to reaching our financial goals (as opposed to the idealist, who goes to school to "learn"). I'm not spending all this time so that I can go out into the real world and cheat my way to success.

To believe that nobody cheats in the professional world would be naive. However, I just don't see myself cheating and lying to others in the future to get to where I want to be. I refuse to buy into the notion that I will need to do so to be successful. Can I get an "Amen?"

Regardless of my feelings, the movie kept playing, so I kept watching even though I was ideologically opposed to where the plot was headed.

After making the importance of cheating in success a common theme through out the film, Stone then depicts secret meetings in which the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board meets with the Wall Street bigwigs to discuss a bailout plan after the financial market collapsed in 2008 (which happened in real life). Arbitray numbers, like $700 billion, were tossed around, and the chairman blindly went with what he heard.

I admit that I do kind of agree with this criticism of our society. I am generally a capitalist and an Adam Smith believer, who argued that people are inherently good and that financial markets will regulate themselves accordingly.

The movie shows how the government not only regulated the markets after the 2008 financial crisis, but wagered public funds in hopes that the economy would turn around. If the headstrong government has shown that it will support an ailing economy, what's to stop financially influential people from acting the same way they did before the crisis?

I believe that if everyone acted in their best interest (more for the long term than the short term), we wouldn't be dealing with this financial crisis and I wouldn't have had to sit through a disappointing movie.

Individuals should not have taken on mortgages they would not be able to afford in the future. Banks should not have made it so easy for people to become homeowners, and then increased the interest rates so much that people would not be able to afford their mortgages. The government isn't acting in its best interest by blindly bailing out the economy because there's nothing stopping the financial sector from putting the country in a similar situation in the future.

--

I would really like feedback, so please leave comments below!

Calvin Berman examines the humor of "Jackass 3D"

According to the Los Angeles Times, "Jackass 3D" grossed $50 million at the box office last weekend.

The film logged the highest-grossing weekend of all time for any movie opening in October, according to New York Magazine.

Seriously?

The 10-year-old "Jackass" franchise (which includes three TV seasons and three feature films) banks on the shock-value-inspired humor it delivers to audiences. There is never a plot, nor any logical flow from scene-to-scene.

In "Jackass 3D," there is plenty of unsolicited violence among cast members, including punches to the face and/or groin. There is also plenty of solicited pain and self-deprecation (which is even stranger), by way of jumping a jet-ski from a swimming pool onto a hill of dirt or having a tooth pulled with the force of a speeding Lamborghini.

Nevertheless, I found myself laughing, along with everyone else in the theater, at the sheer stupidity being carried out by the "Jackass 3D" cast. While laughing, I kept asking myself: "Why the hell is this idiotic shit so funny?"

A part of me believes that people find "Jackass" funny because it's incredibly brain-less, yet it's being played in an actual movie theater as an actual feature film. However, there must be something else, besides this irony, that contributes to the "humor" found in the franchise.

Would our parents find "Jackass" funny? There is no way I could see my mom and dad laughing at any point through out that film. Yet, I do recall countless occasions in which my dad has referenced "Jackass"-type scenes from one of his favorite childhood TV shows, "The Three Stooges."

Perhaps watching the inflicting of pain on unsuspecting victims is funny only to people who lack a certain level of maturity possessed by those who have grown older and wiser. I don't think my dad would find "The Three Stooges" funny if it had been released in the modern day. If this is the case, then a short glance at some Facebook status updates from my friends should show what some of us immature people are thinking about the new movie.

(Screenshot taken after "Jackass" was searched for in my Facebook friends' status updates)

It is just as I suspected: my friends are loving "Jackass 3D." Assuming that this love signifies the prevalence of sadism in my age group, I wonder if my classmates would find humor in a video of me belly-flopping onto concrete off of a flight of stairs.

For those who don't know me, I could see how this image might be funny. However, I'd hope that the 1 percent (give or take 1 percent) of my classmates who do know me would be concerned with my well-being.

Perhaps the key to the sadistic humor of "Jackass" is that the audience does not personally know the cast-members. Since we don't know Johnny Knoxville, why should we be concerned if he can't breathe after getting hit in the neck by a golf ball that he hit against a wall?

I have practically pulled out all of my hair trying to figure out why I find "Jackass 3D" funny, but I can't come up with an answer. Maybe the film just left me an all-around dumber person, unable to use logic and reason.

Please give me any feedback you may have, so that I can stop being a jackass and come up with some type of conclusion. Thanks.

Calvin Berman's thoughts on Facebook after seeing "The Social Network"

Like many other great films, David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Network" left me feeling conflicted. Was the creation of Facebook, the movie's central focus, something to be treasured or scorned?

According to its fan page, Facebook was built to "help people stay connected." Staying connected has proven to be a hot commodity; in just under six-and-a-half years, over 500 million users have signed up for the free service.

I would agree that Facebook is an irreplaceable tool in helping me keep in touch with geographically distant, but affectionately close, friends and family. The social networking site enables me to interact with people I went to camp with and haven't seen for four or five years. I can also browse pictures of my little brother, who looks like he's taller than me now. Great.

For my generation, a written letter oozes formality. A call may be too forward. A text can come across as awkward and random. With people I haven't spoken too in a while, or those who I don't know as well, a Facebook wall-post or instant message is unassuming and well-received.

Facebook has proven a useful tool in helping people promote causes that they deem valuable. I have hosted seven successful political campaigns (shhhh, nobody needs to know that these campaigns were for high school student government positions) on Facebook "Group" Web pages, and I doubt I would have won those elections if Facebook hadn't made it easy for me to promote myself and encourage others to vote. I have also helped promote various charities, like Falling Whistles, a fledgling charity aimed at stopping the forced participation of Congolese children in war.

For all of the good that this social networking site provides, there are major qualms I have about its impact on me.

Too often, I will spend hours surfing the Facebook pages of my friends to the detriment of my responsibilities or, what's scarier, my desires. I can understand the appeal of interacting with friends on Facebook over writing a paper. The scary part is that I've found myself in front of a Facebook-illuminated screen instead of doing more enjoyable and socially rewarding things, like exercising or getting ready for a party.

Another serious concern I have with Facebook is that it gives users the courage and ability to act differently from how they portray themselves in non-virtual reality (anyone seen "Catfish?").

For example, I once had a classmate who I became friends with after seeing him almost every day in class. However, when the 2008 Gaza War broke out, he posted a Facebook status likening Israel's actions to those of the Nazi's. This infuriated me, not only because he never hinted at feeling this way despite my obvious support for Israel, but because he was too much of a coward to address me in person.

It's interesting to note that nothing any of us think or say about Facebook really matters. As my old pal Machiavelli once said, "It is not without good reason that the voice of the people is compared to the voice of God." OVER 500 MILLION people have spoken; Facebook is here to stay.

Nevertheless, I'm curious to learn what other people think. Let me know!