In Paul Thomas Anderson’s possibly best film, The Master, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) tells his acolyte, “If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you’d be the first person in the history of the world.”
This salient comment applies especially to the office worker, who will seek his whole life to get out from underneath the thumb of his corporate master. But alas, even if he does find a way out, he must still answer to a different master that will pay him money. And in this manner, money is always the ultimate master over man. At least in New York City.