Thursday, May 5, 2011

Fight Club! (again)

Its only after we've lost everything that we are free to do anything.

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

Homework assignment
--Hey, is that a gun?
Meet me in the back.
--What are you doing??
Meet me in the back.
[In a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.]
Raymond, you are going to die.
What did you study Raymond?
Why?
What did you want to be Raymond K. Hessel?
The question, RAYMOND, was what did you want to be?
--A vet...too much school...
Would you rather be dead, would you rather die here on your knees in the back of a convenience store?
Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel's life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.

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 f***ing khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

Like a monkey ready to be shot into space. Like space monkey, ready to die for the greater good.

Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

Hi. You're going to call off your rigorous investigation. You're going to publicly state that there is no underground group. Or... these guys are going to take your balls. They're going to send one to the New York Times, one to the LA Times press-release style. Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not... f*** with us.

Is this about you and me?

F*** what you know. You need to forget about what you know, that's your problem. Forget about what you think you know about life, about friendship, and especially about you and me.

Guys, what would you wish you'd done before you died?
Guy: Paint a self-portrait.
Other guy: Build a house.
And you?
--I don't know. Turn the wheel now, come on!
You have to know the answer to this question! If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?
--I don't know, I wouldn't feel anything good about my life, is that what you want to hear me say? Fine. Come on!
Not good enough.

In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name.
--His name is Robert Paulson.
---His name is Robert Paulson.

All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I f*** like you wanna f***, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.


And in the end, what is it that really matters?
This is why I like this movie a lot. Well, this is part of why I like this movie a lot. It makes you question things. What is real? What is important? What do we do in our minds that we don't even realize we are doing?
Can one person change the world?
If one person cannot change the world, what is the least amount of people you have to have before you can?
If one person can organize a group, what is not possible for them to accomplish?
When we realize that we have lost everything...can we do anything?

Its only after we've lost everything that we are free to do anything.

3 comments:

  1. I LOVE THIS MOVIE. When you have nothing to lose, when you realize everything is temporary, it's just a huge freedom that comes with that.

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  2. A huge freedom..why? Are we burdened or held down by the things that we don't think are temporary?

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  3. I also love Fight Club. Awesome movie. Mad props.

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