We are a nation gripped by consumerism. We want we we do not need and can ill afford. We are taught that we must attain, the American Dream, gaining things we do not need nor want to build a façade to but on display for others. We want the house, the car, the clothes, the education and more so we force ourselves into debt. While the rich have the ability to play this game, the vast majority of us do not. We must buy these things with a credit card. You want to go to school, go get a loan. You want a house, go get a loan. What about a car, go and get a loan. We keep diving further and further into debt for these things, some of which are necessary for society but, there are many things that we truly don’t need but to keep up with the Jones’ …show more content…
The first, more palatable definition is, “the promotion of the consumer's interests.” (Merriam Webster) The more controversial definition of consumerism is, “the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable; also : a preoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of consumer goods.” (Merriam Webster) Fight club engages with the latter. We as people, as citizens of the United States are taught that we must consume goods and our act of consumption if for the greater good of everyone, through economic development. But do we really need these things? On major part of consumerism that is left out is that it causes individuals to wallow in debt. By blindly purchasing goods that you can ill afford, to support a system that does not support you. It is affirmed that, “Consumption provides us with many important challenges now. The contemporary facts of consumption urge us to rethink the ethics and politics of it.2 Concern with political consumerism tends to argue how appropriate consumption linked to life-style politics can have a politically significant critical function.” (Giri 207) While many believe that consumerism is just an economic concept, it goes beyond into the realms of politics and social reform. In Fight Club, Tyler Durden is enraged. Enraged at the fact that people like him are taught to consume. They are taught to run the rat race. Go to work to get money to buy. Money is not used as a means of …show more content…
Tyler Durden is trying to change the system to suit us. The working class. The people who make the world turn. It is stated that, Fight Club reveals how merely unmasking the dissimulations of the current dominant group without thinking through alternative models for social integration inadequately corrects the conservative function ideologies play, leading to new forms of dissimulation and domination instead of new possibilities for authentic living. Thus, in the story, Tyler Durden forms fight clubs—underground boxing groups—as an alternative to the religious and corporate culture he sees poisoning America. Members of fight clubs embrace their new collective identities, fed by pithy maxims that embrace criticisms of a society steeped in consumerist fantasies.” (Boscaljon 219) Tyler Durden was not us to wake up. He wants us to see that our invested interest in consumption only pushes us further away from economic stability and independence. We live in a world where we think that debt and the goods it brings us will solve our problems and bring us happiness but all it brings to our doorstep is grief and anguish. So, Tyler decided to so something about it. Through Project Mayhem and the destruction of the credit companies, Tyler has not only shown that we do not need to be bound to the corporations that entice us to consume and he is giving us an option. An option to start over from zero. But what will we do