Who are we as humans, and how do we measure our worth? Can we talk about money, and all it signifies? Let’s start the discussion with Lauren Greenfield’s documentary Generation Wealth.
Greenfield began her career as a photojournalist by documenting LA teenagers’ romance with wealth. Decades later, she returned to assess how those teens, now at midlife, were influenced by the culture of materialism that Hollywood spreads around the world.
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Greenfield noticed that no matter how much money people had, they still wanted more. In LA and all around the world, she documents how money, celebrity, bling and narcissism are pursued obsessively—and without satisfaction.
Where are you in all of this? How does the culture of Generation Wealth show up in your life at MIT? Join us Thursday at 4pm in the Chapel to discuss.
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Greenfield makes the point that Generation Wealth is the culture that made Trump possible.
Why has our society “come to embrace the hollow values of excess and celebrity over more traditional values of hard work, discipline and simple human connection?” Reviewer Sharon Waxman lifts up Greenfield’s college-aged son’s take on the damage done by obsessing on wealth.
Generation Wealth exposes the fallacies of marketplace feminism. Eileen G’Sell lays it down in Salon: “In an age of excess, it’s women who lose.”
“Is enough ever enough, or is it fundamentally unAmerican to believe that someone can have too much money?” Reviewer David Ehrlich concludes that “happiness is something we must all define for ourselves.”
–Nina Lytton, Humanist Chaplaincy Intern
