"Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler."
"We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra."
"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your...khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."
Considering the characters' revolt against "the system" in the movie Fight Club, is their alternative a better one?
Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, is an intriguing story. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, here's the story in a nutshell. A man with severe insomnia meets another man named Tyler Durden. Together they form a club called Fight Club in which people forget their worries and ties to the world and simply beat each other out. The club grows, eventually reaching all the major cities in the United States. It is filled with people who need fulfillment in their lives. In the growth, Tyler changes "Fight Club" into "Project Mayhem" in which the members give up all worldly possessions and terrorize the city. Tyler's ultimate goal is to eliminate social classes by destroying all major credit card companies, forcing America to financially start over. In the end, we learn that Tyler is just a personality that the man with insomnia has created in his mind. He represents what this man wants to be, and throughout the movie he becomes more and more like Tyler.
The "system" teaches that the more money and power you have, and the longer you live, the happier you will be. It teaches that these are the things you must have to be content with life. The primary focus of Fight Club and Project Mayhem is to forget all these worldly pleasures and ties to the world. The people in this club have decided to live their lives with no questions and no regrets. Instead of worrying about how long they'll live, they live to experience life. They don't pursue riches because they find them to be meaningless. Project Mayhem takes these ideas and attempts to spread them to people around the nation. Personally, I agree with their outlook; however, I think their way of living out this perspective is wrong.
The idea that pleasures in this world are not fully satisfying is very true. Millions of people every day wear their lives out trying to get rich and find success. I have found, through experience and observation, that the happiest people in this world are those who have given up or have never had riches. In doing this, we can focus on meaningful things such as love, kindness, and generosity. We stop focusing on ourselves and can focus on others. Giving up our ties to long life will allow us to experience an exciting and fulfilling life. We won't hold back on the fun things in life just because we want to survive.
While their motives were great, Tyler Durden and his club brought these ideas to an extreme, going too far. Living your own life for fulfillment is one thing, but we should never force that upon others by terrorizing them and creating havoc. The idea of forcing one's ideals on another has been a reoccurring problem in world history. Violence is not the answer. So while Tyler's basis of his actions was pure, I cannot say that I support his actions. His alternative to the system was too extreme and will only lead to failure. Giving something up for yourself is one thing, but taking something away from others is another thing...a thing that we have no right to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment