Varun Jaitly
English 1S/T
27 March 2014
2,254 words
Models for God
In the midst of all our occupations, activities, obligations, and interest, we have lost something. The humanity that made us human yet slightly wild has been left behind for a systematic rewiring of our brains, so we pursue things that should carry no meaning, but they do. In the movie Fight Club, Edward Norton plays an insomniac business man whose life seems to be slipping into limbo, until his chance encounter with a very odd individual. Tyler Durden is an alpha male who has some pretty interesting takes on society, with that being said there are some very serious sociological themes that are present in the movie fight club, and Tyler seems to be the center of it all. From the economic disparities that cause the stress and pain in average citizens, to the media that uses discouragement and self-loathing to sell to us, we are surrounded by things discussed by sociologists.
Ending one minute at a time
So what have our lives become? I hardly see my parents, mostly because they're working and I am studying, we both come home tired and stressed out yet we continue to live the lives we live. The serious question is why we put ourselves through this. Well in Fight Club, Edward Norton's character can't sleep, and he doesn't know why. He says he has everything he could possibly need, from his perfect clothes to his perfect IKEA furnished apartment. So he goes to a doctor and asks him why he can't sleep and to give him some meds. The doctor says that he needs to "lighten up" and get healthy natural sleep. The doctor then tells him that he doesn't have it bad compared to the people that go through therapy later in the week. Curious to see what the doctor meant he went to the support groups and came upon an amazing realization; the pain he felt for and through the people in therapy the more he was able to sleep. This sounds crazy, but it's not. What the movie is saying here is that when he was living in his perfect apartment with his regular job and perfect clothes he wasn't feeling anything, he was just stagnating. However when he went to the support groups and pretended to have a disease, he would cry with the other members and he would feel something. This would lead to him feeling and finally sleeping. So what have we lost? What did Edward Norton lose that stopped him from feeling and sleeping? The reality is that we have all lost a little bit, in our time spent pursuing the lives we think we want to live we forget the lives we are living now and how to experience what we are going through NOW. We have stopped living. In the movie there is a quote by Edward Norton where he says "Our lives are ending, one minute at a time" as he looks at a clock dying to sleep.
"His Breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted"
The systematic standardization of society is perfection from bodies to minds to our actions, everything must be perfect. If you are hyper-active you need to be fixed, if your breasts are too small you need implants, if you can't focus the pills will help you focus, if you are offended we'll make sure you aren't. This is our society as it is, from the advertising that heavily influences our desires and aspirations to the way we treat people that aren't exactly like us. We have become a society that does not respond well to individuality and so we must make what is different and unexplainable, become similar and comfortable. In his article "The Medicalization of Deviance" Peter Conard summarizes how modern society deals with social deviance, "In short, the particular dominant designation of deviance has changed; much of what was badness (i.e. sinful or criminal) is now sickness" (Understanding Society ch 20). We see examples of this not just in the Medicalization of deviance but also in the way society deals with problems. Halloween is no longer observed in some American schools because many families who don't participate in Halloween, don't want their kids to feel left out. So schools banned the wearing of costumes and parties in class for Halloween. I know when I am older my kid is going to dress up and go to school and if anyone says anything I will fight for my kids right to wear a costume to school. Why? Well, simply because our society is one that shelters its youth from the realities of the world.
When I moved from a private Christian school to a public school I went from a place where I had many friends and close group of people to a place where I knew no one. Things stayed that way for a long time. It hurt not having a friend or someone to talk to at that age. It was not fun. My 5th grade teacher ended up recommending me for ADHD treatment because I wasn't doing well in class. In all this I gained a valuable lesson, even more so a valuable experience, I learned to make friends. I moved on and tried to take part in clubs and activities because I knew that sitting around alone wouldn't help. That is what is missing from society and that is something fight club touches on a lot. After a few beers Tyler Durden asks Edward Norton's Character to punch him, he says "how much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?" That same logic can be applied to everything. When we remove ourselves from the lows we will not be able to cherish the highs. You can't have happiness without the presence of sadness; you can't feel unique when you are like everyone else. The pain that kids experience is necessary not so they know what sadness is, but so that they can truly enjoy happiness. That's the problem with those bratty kids you see screaming in the store, they don't know how to be happy with the many toys they have instead they only see a lack of more toys.
In Fight club there is a scene where Tyler and Edward Norton go into a shop and pull the owner outside at gun point. Tyler asks for the man's Wallet and takes out his driver's license, he asks him why he's a liquor store owner. The man says he was a college dropout, on his way to become a veterinarian. Tyler asks why he dropped out, and eventually says to the man that he's going to keep the man's ID, and check up on him every 3 weeks. If he isn't on his way to becoming a veterinarian Tyler was going to kill him. The man runs away and Edward Norton's character is appalled, "why did you do that? What was the f****** point!" Then Tyler explains "”Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hassel's life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted. ” The point there was simple, Raymond the store clerk knew that he could have died in that moment, and he succumbed to a goal he had given up on. Now after surviving he will go back, and with the contrast of life, death, and failure he will go back and become a veterinarian. Raymond K. Hessel in that moment and the day after was the most alive he had ever felt. That is what our society is missing, the feeling of being alive, it has been taken away by comfortable living and the constant reassurance that everything is ok.
You're not your fucking Khaki's
I wear Khaki's, why? Because they are comfortable and I believe they look good...but it's not really me who thinks they look good is it? It's my perception that I think others think they will look good on me. Its why Girls take their friends to go shopping, its why my girlfriend takes me to go shopping, she wants to know if what she's choosing looks good on her. Is that what life has really been reduced to? The acceptance and pleasing of others aesthetic view of you? In the Article "the Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" the authors first words are a breakdown of the roles that members of society put on as if they are putting on a performance. "When an Individual plays a part, he implicitly requests his observers to take seriously the impression that is fostered before them"(Goffman, Ch 13). I believe this to be absolutely true, many times I have come across people my age whose personalities are so perfectly placed like railroad tracks that you immediately accept they are that person. With any small amount of effort and good acting you can convince anyone that you are any sort of personality, by simply playing along and being that personality. So where do we get our personalities? The same place we get our dreams, our goals, our aspirations, and our taste. Society around us is a massive influence but the media and the world of entertainment have taken it to another level. In Fight Club, Tyler Durden walks around the room looking at the members of Fight Club and gives one of my most favorite movie quotes.
"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."
The reality is that I will never be Brad Pitt or George Clooney or all the other white male standards that society has deemed beautiful. I am 5'7 and a nice shade of caramel mocha Indian. Yet I am promised women, money, and a life that is so beyond perfect as long as I wear, act, and become someone who I am not. If I act like a “swaged-out” teen accommodating the "gangster culture," I will get more chicks, but I won't. I will listen to the music, wear the clothes, act like them, talk like them and pretend that I am them but I am not them. They will do their best to make me feel unworthy, they'll tell me I don't have what it takes to succeed and that I am not good enough. Well the reality is you are never good enough, but at least you are you, and you can push yourself to be the best that you are. Over the course of two quarters I have grown as a writer and social analyzer and at the same time I have strengthened my own personality. That is the point of it all, we watch TV and we want to be as cool as them, but we forget that we have everything working for us. In a sense the pursuit to keep people wanting things they can't have is destroying society by distracting kids, instead of sensationalizing space travel, or science and discovery, we glorify rappers and men with big penis's saying that is the standard for an amazing man. We don't glorify Howard Hughes, who revolutionized aviation and changed the world, or Tesla who had his designs stolen and then worked on beating his own best efforts. We have forgotten that the men that shaped this world and gave us what we have didn't wear Calvin Klein underwear or rocked a snapback. They sat at a messy desk and let their passion and their aspirations push them to the moon. We have stopped striving for Human Exceptionalism and have replaced it with a need of making ourselves look better or at least good enough to get laid.
"When people think you're dying, they really listen rather than waiting their turn to speak"
Finally I leave you with the same question Tyler Durden asked Edward Norton when he let go the wheel of his car and let it drift into oncoming traffic. What is something you want to do before you die? Remember that thing and do it cause like Tyler says “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 fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” In society we conform to the Zeitgeist, we are in ourselves a representation of this spirit but to act as if we have no control of our Social Cohesion is a lie. Despite how deviant it may seem, or how against the status quo you may have to go, I say go. "Let the chips fall where they may" because in society you can't have happy without sad, and you can't have a status quo without people a minority to challenge that status quo.
Bibliography
1. Goffman, Erving. ""The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life"
" Understanding Society(2012): 91-93. Print.
2. Conrad, Peter, and Joseph W. Schneider. "The Medicalization of Deviance."
Understanding Society (2012): 151-56. Print.
3. Fight Club. Dir. David FIncher. Perf. Brad Pitt, Edward Norton.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2000. DVD.
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