Money & the Power

One of my favourite movie scenes is the business card scene in American Psycho. All the VPs sit around a boardroom table, comparing their business cards. To the untrained eye, they are all identical. It seems absurd, especially because of how seriously they are taking them. But is it absurd. If all someone has to remember you by is a little card, then that card had better paint you in the perfect light. This is where my inspiration for this project came from.

This piece is a difficult one to display for a number of technical reasons. So what you are looking at is actually an incomplete part, that better showcases itself than the finished product would in this context. The finished product is a series of handmade business cards, which I created for my digital print class final. One side is embossed with an insignia that I designed specifically for this project, but which I have since adopted for my personal use. The bull is a symbol of tenacity, of strength, and of masculinity. It stands on a sun-disk, which is, counter-intuitively, an astrological symbol for Earth. The two, together, are meant to symbolize world domination. 

The back of each card is printed with some inspirational quotation about Money & the Power, the title of the series. Well, I say 'printed,' but the courier font actually hand written. The idea was so last minute that I had no time to design a printing strategy. (Ironically, it took me ages to fake the process). To get the embossing on only one side, I needed to to glue the back on afterwords. The image above shows this card, with the famous Wall Street speech, ready to be assembled.

The project was highly controversial, in my class, because the revolutionary-minded young women, who populated my class, found my message offensive. They didn't understand that there is a difference between self-elevation and the oppression of others. Nor did they understand the difference between the celebration of masculinity and the degradation of femininity. I tried to explain that these are not cue cards; these are just get in the aggressive mind frame needed to succeed in the world of business. 'Aggression' — they didn't like that. I was really pleased with my work, but I was speaking to the wrong audience. If it had been a business class, I know that I would have been batting 1000. 

Below is the speech I gave to present my work, and a list of the quotations used. The series was completed April 14, 2014. 

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Since the beginning of the semester, I have been looking for a job. Not a job waiting tables at some cafe, but a job that I can feel good about. A job with a future. But it turns out that work is hard to come by — regardless of what your CV says. 

I believe that most people will agree with me, when I say that hardest part of getting work is just getting out there. Walking through the big, glass doors, up to the big, marble table, just to talk to some snippy secretary, whose job it is to turn you away — it’s unnerving. And the second hardest part of getting work is doing that again, and again, every couple of weeks, until you get to talk to someone who has actually seen your application. 

Sure, there are natural born killers, out there — type A personalities who can wink their way past the front desk — but I’m not one of them. To build the confidence I need, I like to watch macho movies: movies that make me want to light up a Montecristo, jump in the Aston, and blaze down the Sunset Strip.

My final project is an attempt to encapsulate this confidence. I have created a collection of business cards, but for personal use. Each one has a quotation that relates to the idea of Money and the Power, the title of the series. Many of these quotations are from the very films I have used shamanistically. On the reverse side, I have printed a bull. The bull is a symbol of power, tenacity, and virility — masculinity, in essence. 

I created these cards for young men, like myself, on the grind, trying to get payed. It takes brass balls, and these cards are going to grow you a pair. 

This country, you gotta get the money. Then, when you get the money, you get the power. Then, when you power, then you get the woman. 

— Tony Montana (Al Pacino, Scarface)

All I have in this world, is balls and my word.

— Tony Montana (Al Pacino, Scarface)

Fuck you: that’s my name. You wanna know why, mister? Because you drove a Hyundai to get here, tonight; I drove an $80,000 BMW. That’s my name. 

— Blake (Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross) 

Always Be Closing.

— Blake (Alec Baldwin, Glengarry Glen Ross)

You want me on that call. You need me on that call!

— Chris Pappas (A Few Good Expenses)

(Do you believe in God, M. Le Chiffre?)

No. I believe in a reasonable rate of return.

— Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen, Casino Royale)

Fuck damnation, man; fuck redemption! 

— Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, Fight Club)

Non-serviam.

— James Joyce

They say money can’t buy happiness? Look at the fuckin’ smile on my face: ear to ear, baby. 

— Jim Young (Ben Affleck, Boiler Room)

How about a v10 Lamborghini? How’s that for friendship? 

— Dan (Jason Clarke, Zero Dark Thirty)

America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests. 

— Henry Kissinger 

For someone like me to get what he wants, only one thing matters: Money. Lots of money.

— Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie, Headhunters)

I play for high stakes. If you don’t gamble, you don’t win.

— Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie, Headhunters)

All that makes [art] worth anything, is the painter’s reputation.

— Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie, Headhunters)

Greed is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. 

— Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, Wall St.)

I haven’t needed the money since I took Archie’s milk money, in the third grade. To tell you the truth, I don’t need pussy anymore, either. But I like it. 

— Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson, The Departed)

The art of doing good business is being a good middle man. 

— Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon, L4YER CAK3)

You’re born. You take shit. Get out in the world. You take more shit. Climb a little higher; take less shit. Till one day, you’re up in the rarified atmosphere, and you’ve forgotten what shit even looks like. Welcome to the layer cake, son. 

— Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon, L4YER CAK3)

I say ‘never be complete.’ 

— Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, Fight Club)

The first soap was made from the ashes of heroes. Like the first monkeys shot into space, without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing. 

— Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, Fight Club)

Don’t be a pussy.

— Russian proverb

I don’t need no makeup,

I’ve got real scars,

I’ve got hair on my chest,

I look good without a shirt.

— Tom Waits (Goin’ Out West)

America, Fuck Yeah!

— Team America Theme Song

My rifle and I are the defenders of our country. We are the masters of our enemy.

— Maj. Gen. William H. Rupertus

I put my hand in the flame, and held it there. 

— G. Gordon Liddy? (emulating Gaius Mucius Scaevola)

Anyone who excels in defeating his enemies triumphs before his enemies’ threats become real. 

— Sun Tzu (The Art of War)

Vidi. Vici. Veni.

- Anonymous (Description of a good night) 

Iced-out belt buckle,

There never had a chance,

I dropped sixty grand,

Just to hold up my pants.

— Young Jeezy (Diamonds (Remix) — Slim Thug)

Another day,

Another dollar,

Every twenty-four,

I’m thinkin’ money & the power.

— Ace Hood (Get It)

It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.

— P Diddy (All About the Benjamins)

Everyday I'm  hustlin'.

— Rick Ross (Hustlin')

To be, or not to be ... Not to be. 

— Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Last Action Hero)