I still can’t believe we got Matrix and Fight Club in the same year.

Alternative title: Jared breaking the first rule of the fight club for 18 mins straight.

I had a 5 year fight club loneliness phase. Like Tyler, traveled a ton for work, literally waking up in dfw, leaving and Seattle. Was lonely and depressed af. Quit the job,  invested more in friends, and went outside more and into climbing. Also, got a dog. Destruction doesn't solve everything but destroying a life that leaves you empty has possible upside.

you did it, brother, you have achieve philosopher's hair

I saw Fight Club 5 times in the theater. I was 21 years old, had a good job, car, apartment and a "bright future". And I was suffering from crippling depression. Within a year I had sold all of my belongings and moved to South America. That was over 20 years ago, I've never looked back and have never been more content. Live life on your own terms, on your own decisions. Good or bad, you're in control. You don't need that new tv.

I will understand this video 25 years later

The Truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

His job isn't meaningless, however. It's much worse than that. He is actively helping the company he works for cheat and destroy people.

‘All of humanity’s problems stem from our inability to sit quietly in a room alone’ -Pascal  'Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.’ - Henri Nouwen

The final ineptitude is revealed in the books closing pages when the narrator believes he is free from Tyler in a psych ward and the orderly too addresses him as Mr. Durden

The path to peace starts with observing your own mind.

I was a top of my class computer science graduate, pressured into it because parents wanted me to get rich. I got a good job but quit within a year. I hated it and everyone who was proud of me. I bought a bunch of gear and lived in the Minnesotan wilderness without saying goodbye to anyone. I completely let go of it all. I had no experience outdoors, but learning everyday, living off the land, and experiencing the struggle of it all is still my favorite feeling of all time. I eventually inspired myself to get a normal life, where I do low paying manual labor on a boat, and I would never for a second go back to my previous life. I regret nothing.

Fight Club has always been a film that gets shat on for those who would emulate it. No one ever does a serious analysis of why people might want to. Its always dismissed in the same way as huge swaths of the population. Thank you for giving it a more serious analysis.

Fight club reminded me of the 1986 movie with Harrison Ford "The Mosquito Coast" where the father of the family is an eccentric anti-capitalist that had many compelling and charismatic ideals and when he dragged his family to the jungles of South America, we wonder if his ideas were wrong all along.  It can be jarring to agree with a philosophy only to doubt and eventually be repulsed the people who have shown you that philosophy.

He blows up the entire world banking system. CBDC's anyone? Tylers still the one free mind in the equation.
The whole movie is about slavery and false incentives.

I remember fight club and how to profound it helped for my crazy self. The thing about the movie that really surprised it was when a couple of years later I watched the movie with like a generational military family. It's not that they were offended by it, they just didn't understand the premise. Whatever crap you talk about the military, but when it's done right, like it tends to be in USA, it does give you a very strong sense of purpose. For people who have never known this lack of purpose, the movie was just puzzling to them.

To live is to suffer. To survive is to give meaning to your suffering.

This particular video feels just like old school wisecrack. Bravo Jared. I needed this.

I love these discussions of modernity and the various proposals for combating its alienating effects. It can be downright bizarre what some intellectuals sugested.

Damn good video, my man. Got me thinking about the themes in a different way. Now I'm realizing it's been 15 - 16 years since I've seen it, and longer since I've read the book. Time to revisit!