The Mayhem in Project Fascism

I spent an overt amount of time perfecting a short paper, worth very few points. I thought I'd share it with my blog buddies to make it seem worthy of the time I spent on it. Just keep in mind, I don't claim to write well, mkay?

Fight Club. You’ve heard of it. The 1999 film, box office flop that encouraged men and boys across the nation to rediscover their innate primitive desire to fuck shit up. Yes, from the perspective of a naive boy with paternal abandonment issues, this film seems to endorse ideas of Nihilism and Fascism. However, I’d like to develop the possibility that although Fight Club vividly portrays these “isms,” it also represents an accurate illustration of the depravity within their foundation. Furthermore, this idea can be projected into the lives of the Lost Generation and their establishment of Fascism. In result, this comparison can dissect and examine the Fascist ideology.

Modern society: the public zoo of humanity. Technological advancements and cultural diversity are the building blocks of the social world. Innovated composition of these blocks enables the human race to advance and improve the quality of life. However, what liberates humanity also restrains humanity. The modern world has tamed the raw, primitive nature of man. It has encased him in a glass box of consumerism. The origin of man has been reduced to nothing, and he is helpless; only permitted to feebly admire his own severed testicles dangling out of reach, like wind chimes. This concept is not just a derivative of my imagination, but a reoccurring theme throughout Fight Club. The importance of masculinity is a highly prevalent motif and is reiterated in various insignia throughout the film: the representation of testicular cancer support groups; the maltreatment of the only substantial female character, Marla; the narrator figuratively castrated by society through his personal consumerism. In the film, Tyler Durden claims, “The things you own end up owning you.” This is his call to cut the ties of femininity and to embrace the masculine primitive struggle for survival. “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” The question is then raised: without the risk of death, what is the purpose of life—or as Tyler puts it, “How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?”

Trench soldiers of WWI experienced a similar calling. After the excitement of war, returning home to society was a rough transition. The men of the Lost Generation experienced a struggle for survival during WWI, which in turn, shaped their ideology on life. At war these men served a purpose with high stakes, understood the result of loss, and valued the significance of survival. Certainly returning to modern society was a bland interchange from their once primitive fight for existence. Trench soldiers like Adolf Hitler desired to not only ease this transition, but to maintain his previous lifestyle and share his experiences with the rest of society. This eventually birthed the creation of a national community: Fascism.

Project Mayhem: A single organism composed of unidentifiable humans, striving toward a common goal. Members are “the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression.” And what is man without a great turbulence to confront? To Tyler Durden—nothing. Instead, he and Project Mayhem simulate turbulence and rediscover their lost masculinity through nightly fights. In this developing community me is overturned into we. Within the film, this principle is vivid and portrayed in wide variety—in the script, for example the line, “In Project Mayhem we have no name,” but also through imagery, which creates a more poignant portrayal. In one scene, the inside of Tyler’s bedroom door is revealed. Pinned to the door are the identification cards of each Project Mayhem member. Above the cards a sign reads: human sacrifices. This wordless two-second shot straightforwardly asserts the idea that the forfeit of personal identity is an immediate initiation of Project Mayhem.

The connections between Fascism and Project Mayhem quickly become quite clear. Nihilistic violence becomes a commonplace tactic in bringing about order. Cultural diversity is stifled and believed to root individuality, an adversary of Fascism. In the same way Project Mayhem works to erase the world’s credit debt, Fascists strive to level the playing field in society by creating a universal working class. Conversely, with everyone achieving and succeeding at the same standard, there is little availability to exceptional existence and life eventually becomes stagnant. Ultimately, this repressed condition limits advancement in the working class.

Now the image has been overturned. Fascism becomes the public zoo of humanity. Although nihilistic violence and radical assimilation are the building blocks of the totalitarian world, their masculine liberation is limited. This mind set has encased humanity in a glass box of irrationality. The refined philosophic nature of man has been reduced to nothing, and he has become ignorant; negligent to retrieve his extracted brain dangling within reach, like wind chimes.

In Fight Club, the narrator eventually becomes cognizant of his obsessive, belligerent behavior and the flawed society he’s constructed. Cutting off the source, the illusion of Tyler, he is able to recognize the repercussions of his new society. Although his previous actions are irreversible, the vital concluding moment is remarkably portrayed in his subtle reacceptance of femininity. Hand in hand with Marla, he begins anew—reset to zero.