Fight Club

REFLECTION

The moment that you were born every people living in this world are facing challenges that
are usually common to everyone. The moment you wake up seems like everything is just plain and
the same that’s why there is something in us that we want to explore something new that will
eventually change what we want to do or what makes us happy to change who we are.

Watching the movie Fight Club movie 1999 starring Edward Norton as the unnamed
narrator, Brad Pitt as the soap salesman Tyler Durden and Helena Bonham Carter as the destitute
woman Maria singer. I find the movie quite interesting especially, it shows how reality works on
how it shows how people are willing to do anything whenever they are depressed, upset, lonely,
in trouble, hopeless, unhappy and could able to join or are being exposed to group dynamics and
powerful leaders that we can relate how our life is moving in these days. The movie has the lessons
that one can easily miss in all the brutality of the countless fights.

Listening and understanding closely to this movie tells us a lot about life, society and the
way things are going these days specifically on one self. Though I didn’t like the movie because
of the words and scenes that are put and encountering God is not important is not so good yet there
are many lessons that we can encounter, and these are the following things I’ve noted and reflected.

SELF IMPROVEMENT. Common but usually turns in our mind. During this days people
tend to improve one self. In society, we are spoon-fed this need for constant ‘self-improvement’
in the eyes of some self-improvement guru. But the fallacy is that we need ‘improving.’ You are
already perfect the way you are. Rather, Tyler Durden suggests we seek ‘self-destruction’ — the
antithesis of self-improvement. Not to destroy ourselves to commit suicide or cut ourselves.
Rather, to destroy the lies consumerist mentality we have in our minds.

POTENTIAL. ‘I see all this potential; and I see it all squandered. Entire generation of
slaves with white collars.’ – Tyler Durden. As humans, we have so much human potential. Yet,
we waste it pointlessly. We waste it becoming consumerist slaves — except instead of chains, we
wear golden Rolexes. We live in a golden cage. We cannot fly free. How we're some of the
strongest and smartest species on this planet earth but we're squandering our lives doing waste less
jobs, pumping gas, waiting tables, being white collar slaves and buying stuff we don't need. That
we're children of the history without any real purpose or place. Without any great wars. Without a
great depression. The wars we fight are spiritual fights. Our great depression are our own lives.

PURGE. ‘It is only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.’ – Tyler
Durden aka the alter ego of Edward Norton, blows up his own condo. But after purging himself of
his prior life, he is free. Practically speaking — I have gained much freedom by purging myself of
my past. Purging my past negative memories, purging my superfluous possessions, and purging
bullshit. This helped me become reborn, and now I feel free.

OUR LIFE IS A SPIRITUAL WAR. ‘Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working
jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. No purpose or place. No great war, no great
depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives.’ To have a zest for
life, we need struggle. We need pain. We need something to overcome. We need to find meaning
in our lives— to find some deeper purpose. For me, I find purpose in life through serving our
Heavenly Father, through empowering and serving others, and in terms of fulfilling my creative
potential.

BECOME THE BEST VERSION OF YOUR SELF. The interesting concept of Fight Club
— Tyler Durden is the same person. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are the same person. However,
Brad Pitt is the idealized version of Edward Norton. Brad Pitt is everything that Edward Norton
wants to be. We all have an inner-Brad Pitt (or Tyler Durden). The only thing we need to do is to
take radical change in our lives, to become what Nietzsche calls— the ‘over-man’ (or ‘superman’)
who overcomes all the difficulties in his life. We need to take responsibility for our lives. Not to
blame others or make excuses. We just need to go out and pursue our dreams and do what we truly
believe in — refusing to let the rules of society cage us in.

LIFE I ISN’T ABOUT WINNING OR LOSING. Fight Club isn’t about winning or losing.
It is rather about fighting your inner-self, your inner-ego, your inner-fears. In Fight Club, you
aren’t beating another person — you are just conquering your own fears in life. And you are getting
closer to another human being in fraternity. In real life, there is no winning or losing. We are all
on the same team in this world community of humanity. We need to help one another— build each
other up, instead of tearing each other down.

- Sharmaine S. Ybañez