Yeah, I know you’ve seen it. Yeah, I love it too. But the movie (and the book – the movie follows the book very closely) is so freaking complicated, that it makes me wanna cry every time I see it. There’s just… more of everything. At best, it’s a lifestyle movie for the mentally deranged.
For example, the excess. The movie is highly against any form of extremes. Extreme human behavior, in particular. You see, Tyler is trying to say, that once we reach the bottom, once we are free from the enthrallment of our modern lifestyle, once we have nothing – we can finally be free. Or can we? Reality shows, that we indeed are slaves to our possessions – we “work jobs we hate to buy stuff we don’t need”. Nothing is permanent – we are subject to expiration just as much as our sofa, carpet and yin-yang shaped coffee table. The Buddhist monks are always in agony because of that singe fact – that nothing is permanent is this world, everything is a subject to some kind of change over certain periods of time, be it gradation or degradation. Except that Tyler makes another choice – that he won’t let his understanding of the world bring him down. So, he tries to change it and succeeds to a limited degree.
When you look at project “Mayhem”, its nothing more than the communist dream come true. People carrying orders without any questions, people, whose only possessions the clothes on their back and $300 for a funeral, and yet they do not work for their own personal gain, but for what they believe is the greater good of society. And better yet, not what THEY believe, but what “The Man”, Tyler, tells them to believe. They don’t have a name, they are what our culture considers to be “brainwashed”, completely willingly. Here we see Tom Sawyer’s principle in work – give a man a reward for doing a certain thing and he’ll completely and utterly hate it, but make him work hard for the privilege to do the exact same thing and he’ll crave it day and night. In perspective, Tyler is as manipulative as can be – he twists and plays with our emotions not only in project “Mayhem”, but in “Fight Club” too. And we let him do it to the point of no return, because he is handsome, cool, smart and charismatic.
On the other side we have the nameless protagonist, the usual nobody we see everyday, we meet everyday. He’s got a 9 to 5 job, shirt and a tie, hates his job and his boss and the only comfort he finds is in his holy land – his home. And his refrigerator full with spices and no food, which can be seen as a metaphor for his lifestyle – his infatuation with the flavor of life and not its real taste. He feeds off emotions – just like all of us. The emotions of dying people, the emotions of Tyler and in the end – the emotions of his probable relationship with Marla. And when he has no such source, he opts to create his own, even though he doesn’t realize it at the time.
We see both extremes – the normal, everyday human being, and the idealist extraordinaire.
And none seem to work alright – Tyler’s dreams borders with terrorism, plus you can’t really make people live the way you want them to live. Well, you can, but it just ain’t right, I think you’ll have to agree with me on this one, because when you force someone to do your bidding, it’s not freedom, and freedom is what Tyler’s all about. In the same line of thoughts, you also can’t be “society’s bitch” – sure, you can, but it’s not freedom too. So, what is freedom?
Truth is, nothing is given to you by right. As Helvétius said, even the fool isn’t born a fool – to be a fool you need exercise, you need to achieve it, you need to want to be a fool, consciously or not. In the same fashion, you aren’t born free. But you can achieve freedom, if you work for it. That, however, doesn’t answer “What is freedom?” The right answer is “Who knows?” Do you feel free? For some people freedom might be running through the woods, with big swords and screaming your lungs out (Norwegian black metal scene, I’m looking at you). For some people, it’s the anarchy – the natural selection law, where the strong dominate the weak, where you can do every little thing you can imagine, that will indulge your inner desires, without anyone interfering. But the conception of “freedom” does not equal “chaos” in every mind – some people find the freedom in order, in modern society. Or are they brainwashed to believe “Coca-cola” plus “Downtown malls” equals “Freedom”? Or are the other people, the chaotic individuals, forced to believe their vision is the “right” freedom? Or have they just seen “Apocalypse now” and “Mad Max” too many times?
For example, the excess. The movie is highly against any form of extremes. Extreme human behavior, in particular. You see, Tyler is trying to say, that once we reach the bottom, once we are free from the enthrallment of our modern lifestyle, once we have nothing – we can finally be free. Or can we? Reality shows, that we indeed are slaves to our possessions – we “work jobs we hate to buy stuff we don’t need”. Nothing is permanent – we are subject to expiration just as much as our sofa, carpet and yin-yang shaped coffee table. The Buddhist monks are always in agony because of that singe fact – that nothing is permanent is this world, everything is a subject to some kind of change over certain periods of time, be it gradation or degradation. Except that Tyler makes another choice – that he won’t let his understanding of the world bring him down. So, he tries to change it and succeeds to a limited degree.
When you look at project “Mayhem”, its nothing more than the communist dream come true. People carrying orders without any questions, people, whose only possessions the clothes on their back and $300 for a funeral, and yet they do not work for their own personal gain, but for what they believe is the greater good of society. And better yet, not what THEY believe, but what “The Man”, Tyler, tells them to believe. They don’t have a name, they are what our culture considers to be “brainwashed”, completely willingly. Here we see Tom Sawyer’s principle in work – give a man a reward for doing a certain thing and he’ll completely and utterly hate it, but make him work hard for the privilege to do the exact same thing and he’ll crave it day and night. In perspective, Tyler is as manipulative as can be – he twists and plays with our emotions not only in project “Mayhem”, but in “Fight Club” too. And we let him do it to the point of no return, because he is handsome, cool, smart and charismatic.
On the other side we have the nameless protagonist, the usual nobody we see everyday, we meet everyday. He’s got a 9 to 5 job, shirt and a tie, hates his job and his boss and the only comfort he finds is in his holy land – his home. And his refrigerator full with spices and no food, which can be seen as a metaphor for his lifestyle – his infatuation with the flavor of life and not its real taste. He feeds off emotions – just like all of us. The emotions of dying people, the emotions of Tyler and in the end – the emotions of his probable relationship with Marla. And when he has no such source, he opts to create his own, even though he doesn’t realize it at the time.
We see both extremes – the normal, everyday human being, and the idealist extraordinaire.
And none seem to work alright – Tyler’s dreams borders with terrorism, plus you can’t really make people live the way you want them to live. Well, you can, but it just ain’t right, I think you’ll have to agree with me on this one, because when you force someone to do your bidding, it’s not freedom, and freedom is what Tyler’s all about. In the same line of thoughts, you also can’t be “society’s bitch” – sure, you can, but it’s not freedom too. So, what is freedom?
Truth is, nothing is given to you by right. As Helvétius said, even the fool isn’t born a fool – to be a fool you need exercise, you need to achieve it, you need to want to be a fool, consciously or not. In the same fashion, you aren’t born free. But you can achieve freedom, if you work for it. That, however, doesn’t answer “What is freedom?” The right answer is “Who knows?” Do you feel free? For some people freedom might be running through the woods, with big swords and screaming your lungs out (Norwegian black metal scene, I’m looking at you). For some people, it’s the anarchy – the natural selection law, where the strong dominate the weak, where you can do every little thing you can imagine, that will indulge your inner desires, without anyone interfering. But the conception of “freedom” does not equal “chaos” in every mind – some people find the freedom in order, in modern society. Or are they brainwashed to believe “Coca-cola” plus “Downtown malls” equals “Freedom”? Or are the other people, the chaotic individuals, forced to believe their vision is the “right” freedom? Or have they just seen “Apocalypse now” and “Mad Max” too many times?
So, it comes down to differences in human behavior. And the final conclusion is that we are never going to be free. Because freedom isn’t binary no more, as it was in the medieval times, for example. Its not “slavery” vs. “freedom” no more. We have evolved as species, but not in a physical way. Douglas Adams says that there are three different phases, through which every civilization goes. These are the Primitivism, Curiosity and Sophistication, which three can be described with a corresponding question: Primitivism with “What’s there to eat?”, Curiosity with “Why do we eat?” and finally, Sophistication with “Where are we going for lunch?” And by all means, we reached the third stage by the time we banned human sacrifice. Now freedom is more of a concept to us. Its an ideal, pursued by idealists, but its always, and will always be just out of their grasp. So, it all boils down to this:
”Am I going to be free?”
“Sure, you already are.”
“Really?”
“No. Never.”
”Am I going to be free?”
“Sure, you already are.”
“Really?”
“No. Never.”
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