“It’s only after you lose everything that you’re free to do anything.” Tyler Durden words echo through out his novel and in my mind. Every single thing in your life, every physical possession, every title, role, relationship – they all come with subscribed behaviors that you have to conform to. Infamous philosopher Karl Marx put forth the idea of ‘dominant ideology.’ Dominant ideology is the way a nation thinks, or the set of values the nation holds as a whole, handed down by the ruling class. It’s a form of social control.
In China, the government tells the citizens that the Communist Party brought an end to Japanese occupation during WWII – not the United States. Crazy, right? In America, we are told that with hard work, we can do anything we want, be anything we want, and accomplish our dreams. In church we are told to be good because Jesus is watching us. In school we are told that we are unique, high-spirited, creative, and special. These all have one thing in common, they are lies.
Chuck Palahniuk‘s Fight Club is an exceptional – and exceptionally disturbing – Marxist critique of the American way, penned by a diesel mechanic and member of the anarchist Cacophony Society. I choose to write about Fight Club – to break the first rule of Fight Club – because I am alive and I can think. I’m awake, and you need to wake up too.
Fight Club Manifesto 