Fight Club
was about fascism before it devolved into other more controversial stuff. I decided to put this thread here instead of the Movie Thread because this will get fucking long and might even require multiple posts, and I am dubious of how willing casual viewers of a thread are willing to scroll through a ludicrously-huge wall of text. This movie fascinates me to the point that a few months ago I literally dedicated three days' worth of free time to analyzing this movie minute by minute and taking notes, with timestamps, of elements that support my hypothesis. It is 24 pages long in Word. That hypothesis being:I will concentrate upon the second theme, though some points will certainly relate to the first. This first requires a relatively brief summary ofFight Club is a film with many central themes and interpretations of those themes. I will be focusing on two – the main character’s struggle with his masculine gender identity, and the rise of a fascist ideology. The first theme will explore the psycho-sexual and gender-charged symbolism that appears in the film as well as the effect of toxic masculinity in influencing the main character. The second theme will explore how Fight Clubs and Project Mayhem conform to an alarming number of points detailed in Umberto Eco’s essayUr-Fascism.
Ur-Fascism
. Ur-Fascism
is an essay by Umberto Eco (a writer and philosopher whose childhood was spent in Mussolini's Italy) detailing that while fascism is a highly complex yet specific ideology that varies based on the native culture of the country in which the particular strain of fascism originates and develops, all fascist ideologies share most or all of the following 14 elements:I will skip the majority of my 24-page notes onUr-Fascism Paraphrase wrote: 1.Cult of Syncretistic Tradition:Fascism draws upon social traditions to evoke the perceived stability of ages past. It is alsosyncreticit that it combines modern ideological concepts with traditional concepts, in order to connect the modern fascist ideology with that perceived stability. This combination leaves open the possibility of contradictions by necessity, since contradictions are a common and necessary part of fascism which allows it freedom to lie pathologically to build a false world view for consumption by the public.
2.Rejection of Modernism:Fascism is an extreme reactionary ideology, primarily against socialism/communism. Thus it must reject modernism and progressive values as degenerate and destabilizing for a society, doubly so because of the importance of the cult of tradition.
3.Cult of Action for Action's Sake:Action is inherently masculine and a sign of strength. Fascism encourages action without thought, for action is strength and thought is treason and weakness.
4.Suppression of Academia:Fascism, being an ideology built upon lies and contradictions, cannot withstand criticism. Therefore, academics and intellectuals must be undermined, persecuted, suppressed, and annihilated by any means necessary.
5.Fear of Difference:Fascism exploits the natural human fear of difference. Fascism drums up the appeal against intruders, portraying that which is different from the "normal", the "traditional", the "status quo" as a dangerous threat that undermines stable and civilized society. Thus fascism is racist by definition.
6.Appeal to Middle Class Frustration:The middle class - those who are well-off but not aristocrats or economic elites - must feel threatened and humiliated. They resent the privilege of elites but fear revolution from below. They must be made to feel that the walls are closing in from all sides and that the only way to save their way of life is violent repression of dissent and the seizure of control over the economy and the state, be it by force or by collaboration with the elites.
7.Appeal to Nationalism:Fascism appeals to those deprives of a clear social identity by appeal to nationality of origin, combined with race and racial persecution. It also promotes anobsession with a plot- the target demographic must constantly feel as if Others are plotting their downfall, and this is primarily achieved through xenophobia.
8.Contradictory Rhetoric Appealing to Humiliation:Followers are told that they are constantly under siege and being undermined by the enemy, that the enemies are too overwhelming, but that by coming together as One People and One State under One Leader they can overcome these enemies. Therefore, under Fascism the followers are simultaneously too weak and too strong. This is a contradiction that is central to Fascism, for it both helps its success by manipulating its followers but simultaneously helps bring about its downfall because Fascist governments cannot objectively evaluate the force of their enemies due to the demands of ideological dogma.
9.Life is Permanent Warfare:Fascism is Social Darwinist to the extreme. Strength is only attained through struggle. Only the strong survive, and any failure is a sign of weakness and a lack of worthiness for life.
10.Contempt for the Weak:Fascism is hierarchical to the extreme, but the concept of class struggle must be annihilated. Its people are the best in the world, the party leaders are the best of the citizens. Fascism can only seize power by force, thus those who it subjugates must be weak, for the strong resist submission. Therefore, in fascism all leaders despise their own underlings - as they have subordinated themselves, they are weak, and only the strong are worthy. Another central contradiction to fascism.
11.Cult of Death:Heroic death in service to the State and the Leader is the ultimate reward. Everyone must strive to be a hero, and to die a heroic death.
12.Machismo:Traditional masculine virtues are glorified to the extreme. Women are disdained and weak. Their place is in traditional female roles and to be submissive. Phallic imagery and obsession is common due to the emphasis placed upon the male gender identity and its superiority.
13.Selective Populism:Fascism appeals to popular sentiments, but is selective in its populism. The individual concerns of the people are irrelevant, only the monolithic concept of The People. The will of The People is the Common Will. The Leader represents the Common Will, and The People submit themselves to the Leader for the greater good. But this is all an elaborate lie, for fascists seize power by force and then use mass media propaganda to suggest that they were pushed into power by mass popular support (Seriously, no fascist government has ever achieved absolute power without the use of force to secure it. No, the Nazis weren't elected into absolute power).
14.Newspeak:Vocabulary must be limited in order to limit thinking, for thinking leads to dissent, and all dissent is treason.
Fight Club
and just get down to business on exactly what parts of Fight Club
directly tie into these points, or more obvious references to fascism that do not tie into these points.#1 wrote: (23:21-23:53) – Tyler’s chief occupation as a soap-maker and salesman is four-fold, two of which the film spells out over its course – Tyler’s knowledge of the chemistry of soap-making gives him knowledge pertinent to making homemade explosives; and Tyler makes his soap out of human fat stolen from liposuction clinics, “selling rich women their fat asses right back to them” in a clever subversive exploitation of the materialistic, capitalist system. The other two are that soap-making is one of the oldest professions of human history, which might not even be a deliberate way to tie Tyler into a traditional occupation; and that as a soap salesman Tyler is himself a cog in the capitalist machine, though Tyler uses his position primarily for subversive means as detailed above.
The final part is relevant because fascists don’t seek to revolutionize their society despite their propaganda and rhetoric – they seek to seize control of their existing society, co-opt its institutions that fit their needs, and replace the institutions that don’t with their ideal versions. That fascists cannot destroy most of their society’s institutions is a core part of their ideology, because they must legitimize their ideology by tying it to the stability and prosperity of an idealized past.
(29:46-29:54) – Tyler preaches about toupees as a sign of materialism as cultural degeneracy. “Is this essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No.”Appeal to tradition, and in such a way as to reference the masculine ideal as the protector and breadwinner.
(42:48-43:10) – The famous first rule of Fight Club is contradictory. “You do not talk about Fight Club”. Yet in the future everyone clearly does, if not directly by name. The Fight Clubs are Tyler/Jack’s means of recruiting new members to his fascist ideology. People must talk about Fight Club to others in order for Tyler/Jack’s plan to succeed. Additionally, the secretive nature of the organization is another draw for middle-class men unsatisfied with the monotony of their life, as later demonstrated by Bob. Finally, the contradictory nature of Fight Club’s first rule plays into Ur-Fascism:
For fascist ideologies, the narrative combining their new ways with the stability of ancient traditions is frequently contradictory, because they are built on lies. Just as how Tyler’s future rants are built on lies and appeals to bad-faith emotions.This new culture had to be syncretistic. Syncretism is not only, as the dictionary says, “the combination of different forms of belief or practice”; such a combination must tolerate contradictions.
#2 wrote: (4:12-4:24) – The camera tracks up through the brand-named trash and back into the office environment as Jack rants about corporatism. The rejection of corporatism and capitalism will be a running theme of the film, and relates again to Ur-Fascism, this time point #2:
Durden and Project Mayhem will reject and rail against corporatism even as he develops his own carbon-copy of the corporate hierarchy.The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course). The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.
(11:34-11:47) – “This was my vacation. And she. Ruined. Everything.” Marla attending the testicular cancer support group is symbolic of the modernizing egalitarianism of society – of women “invading” traditionally male spaces. While women had previously been part of other support groups Jack attended (and their use as nurturing maternal figures to him was a central part of feeding his addiction), this is the testicular cancer support group – as a woman, Marla has no physical reason to be here, and is therefore an outsider, an intruder...This again ties into point #2 of Ur-Fascism, the rejection of modernism – the “invasion” of “their” spaces is caused by the modernization of society, and so to defend against the outsiders modernization must be rejected and demonized as “degeneration” or “regression”.
Marla “invading” Jack’s male safe space shatters Jack’s false epiphany and drives him back into his identity crisis. Why? Because Marla is definitively not a nurturing maternal figure. By a non-nurturer invading this addicting fantasy Jack has crafted and associated with emotional catharsis via maternal nurturing, it brings Jack to realize that this catharsis is indeed a fantasy and addiction and reignites his identity crisis.
(29:55-30:52) – “Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me, are celebrity magazines, television with five hundred channel, some guy’s name on my underwear, Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra-” “Martha Stewart.” “Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha’s polishing the brass on the Titanic, it’s all going down, man!” Morerejection of modernism. Fascists fear the “degeneration of culture”, typically undermined from within by a scapegoat ethnic or religious group.
(40:15-40:29) – Jack/Tyler of course balks at the prospect of getting married. If his father abandoned him at a young age, the memory of his parents’ marriage is an unhappy one, and thus marriage is a concept with which he associates unhappiness. “We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.” More misogyny, and it also brings back to prominence the Ur-Fascist points ofmachismoandrejection of modernism. Fascism is a reaction against the perceived “degeneration of society”, and in Fight Club that is represented by the “feminization” of society.
(1:45:24-1:46:36) – The famous His Name Is Robert Paulson sequence. Many layers here. “…destroy a piece of corporate art” has vibes of destroying “degenerate art” –The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.rejection of modernism. “…and trash a franchise coffee bar” is again deeply ironic considering how Fight Club has franchised itself.
Bob’s brain is destroyed by the wound, symbolic of how Fight Club and Project Mayhem indoctrinated him and destroyed his former identity.
#3 wrote: (34:12-34:22) – “You ever been in a fight?” “No, but th-that’s a good thing.” “No it’s not, how could you ever know anything about yourself if you ain’t never been in a fight?” Not only is this a direct application of the toxically masculine notion that a man must be ready for violence at any time and generally physically aggressive, it also plays into Ur-Fascism’s point #3:
(39:32-40:15) – “I’d fight my dad.” Introduction of the running theme of Tyler’s character – his severe daddy issues. Which are, in turn, Jack’s daddy issues. The combination of Jack’s attraction to nurturing maternal figures earlier in the film with Tyler’s/Jack’s clear issues with lacking a strong father figure demonstrate the origins of Jack’s resentful attitude toward women. He likely suffers from an Oedipus Complex and hates himself for it. Additionally, this entire first part of the conversation (and future conversations) between Jack and Tyler about who they would fight if they could fight anyone revisits two of the points of Ur-Fascism –Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action’s sake. Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.action for action’s sakeandlife is permanent warfare.
Also significant is Tyler’s (and thus Jack’s) rant about his father’s guidance (or rather, lack thereof) leaving him lacking preparation or direction in life, and his frustration with conforming to the typical middle-class lifestyle. He went to college, got a well-paying job, yet still life was empty for him.Appeal to a frustrated middle class.
(43:26-43:40) – “Rule seven: fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first night at Fight Club…you have to fight.”Action for action’s sakeandLife is permanent warfare. New members are immediately indoctrinated into the club’s ideology by forcing them to take part in the violence.
(44:16) – “You weren’t alive anywhere like you were there.”Action for action’s sake.
(44:40-44:57) – Jack and Tyler discuss fighting any celebrity again.Action for action’s sake.
(46:06-46:38) – “The hysterical shouting was in tongues, like a Pentecostal Church. When the fight was over, nothing was solved, but nothing mattered. Afterwards we all felt saved.” Fight Club has become a cult, for which the application of violence has achieved ritualized status a la that of a religious service. They are literally a cult ofaction for action’s sake.
(46:51-47:10) – “I’d fight Gandhi.” “…Good answer.”Action for action’s sakeandLife is permanent warfare. Once again,pacifism is trafficking with the enemy.
(47:25) – Marla finally re-inserts herself into Jack’s life. She will be key to Jack attempting to de-escalate what he has put into motion and regain his sanity. Notably, Tyler is in the background practicing with nunchuks.Action for action’s sakeandLife is permanent warfare.
(55:24-55:34) – “I got right into everyone’s hostile little face. Yes, these are bruises from fighting. Yes, I’m comfortable with that. I am enlightened.”Action for action’s sake.
(1:04:04) – “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”Cult of death. Life is permanent warfare. Action for action’s sake.
(1:05:12-1:05:49) – Jack’s threat to shoot up the office if fired or disciplined.Action for action’s sake. Contempt for the weak.
(1:11:21-1:15:00) – This entire sequence of Tyler asserting his dominance over Lou isaction for action’s sakeandlife as permanent warfare. Tyler deliberately loses the fight, but still asserts his dominance and achieves his goals. And that is why Tyler’s “homework” isn’t a betrayal of the toxically masculine/fascist obsession with domination – it is a recruiting technique, where despite losing the fight the fascists retain their dominance by achieving their overall goal.
(1:19:45) – “Tyler dreamt up new homework assignments. He handed them out in sealed envelopes.” The transformation of the Fight Clubs from a hyper-masculine hobby to Tyler’s personal paramilitary force begins. Violence and vandalism – typically against symbols of corporate capitalism – becomes the rite of passage from Fight Club to Project Mayhem, just as the first fight was the rite of passage from normalcy to Fight Club.Action for action’s sake.
(1:23:47) – “C’mon what the fuck was the point of that?” “Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Essel’s life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal than you and I have ever tasted.”Action for action’s sake.
#4 wrote: (1:32:49) – “Sir, the first rule of Project Mayhem is ‘you do not ask questions’, sir.” The blackshirts are unthinking, unquestioning automatons of violence, only good for enforcing the will of the Leader. This brings up yet another point of Ur-Fascism:
As Project Mayhem rises to full swing, Jack expresses increasing amounts of doubt through both his words and his body language.No syncretistic faith can withstand analytical criticism. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.
#5 wrote: (11:34-11:47) – “This was my vacation. And she. Ruined. Everything.” Marla attending the testicular cancer support group is symbolic of the modernizing egalitarianism of society – of women “invading” traditionally male spaces. While women had previously been part of other support groups Jack attended (and their use as nurturing maternal figures to him was a central part of feeding his addiction), this is the testicular cancer support group – as a woman, Marla has no physical reason to be here, and is therefore an outsider, an intruder. This also ties into Ur-Fascism, with point #5:(53:09-53:14) – “She’d invaded my support groups, now she’d invaded my home.” Again, toxic masculinity rears its ugly head as the now hyper-masculine Jack becomes angry that once again a woman has “invaded” his traditionally male space. Also ties into Ur-Fascism once again, for the same reason:Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders.fear of difference.
#6 wrote: (4:02) – It is deliberate and significant that Jack is a middle-class, white-collar office worker. Ur-Fascism’s point #6:
This will be an extremely important recurring theme of the rise of the Fight Clubs and Project Mayhem.“Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration. That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old "proletarians" are 7 becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.”
(37:56-38:19) – It is significant that several of the first members of Fight Club are dressed in expensive leather jackets or business suits. Again, fascism draws its chief adherents from a frustrated middle class. “Alright man…lose the tie.”
(39:32-40:15) – Also significant is Tyler’s (and thus Jack’s) rant about his father’s guidance (or rather, lack thereof) leaving him lacking preparation or direction in life, and his frustration with conforming to the typical middle-class lifestyle. He went to college, got a well-paying job, yet still life was empty for him.Appeal to a frustrated middle class.
(40:30-) – “Most of the week we were Ozzy & Harriet…but Saturday night, we were finding something out…we were finding out more and more that we were not alone.”Appeal to a frustrated middle class.
(1:10:23-1:10:58) – Tyler preaching to the choir. Again drawing upon the metaphor of Fight Club as a religious organization, and the fights as a religious ritual. “God damn it an entire generation of people pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves with white collars. Advertisers have us driving 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.”Appeal to a frustrated middle class.Perhaps the most explicit it gets in the film.
(1:11:01-1:11:20) – “We’ve all been raised on television to believe we’d one day 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.”Appeal to a frustrated middle class.Middle-class men attracted to fascism resent the privileges of the upper class that have been denied to them, while fearing the violent revolution of those below them. Fascist adherents must have someone below them, because there must be someone they have contempt for – someone they can look at and say “Thank the Leader that I’m not one of those weaklings anymore.”
This again ties into toxic masculinity as well. These are people who have been fed an ideal body image and gender role all their lives, and who feel self-loathing and resentment toward society as a whole for being unable to achieve it and lash out at society for having been lied to. But the members of Fight Club aren’t angry that the ideal is unattainable – they still desire to attain that ideal. Instead, they are angry that someone else sits the throne instead of themselves. They still believe the ideal is unattainable. They don’t want to destroy the throne – they covet it, and all the perks that come with it.
And the same applies to fascism. They see the privilege of the elites in the capitalist system and envy them. But they don’t reject the capitalist system – that would be communism. No – they covet the throne, and instead to usurp it rather than destroy it. They seek to seize the framework of society and bend it to their own will and vision. That is the seduction of fascism – not a destruction of the society that burned you, but a subjugation of it to your advantage.
(1:33:53-1:35:11) – “The people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not. Fuck with us.” Tyler is lying here. His revolution, as with any fascist movement, is not a revolution of the lower classes, but of the middle classes. But as the middle classes turn to fascism partly out of fear of revolution by the lower classes, so to must they invoke fear in the hearts of the upper classes, to better persuade the upper classes that working with them is beneficial (especially compared to the communists). Additionally, if it is advantageous for fascists to portray themselves as working stiffs, to co-opt the threat of a working-class revolution, then they will do it even if it contradicts their dogma, as usual.
Of course it is also telling that the go-to threat of Tyler and Project Mayhem is castration. Castration – both literal and figurative – is the ultimate injury to the hyper-masculine and misogynistic.
Also, the blackshirts are dressed in white for this sequence, contrasting with the commissioner and the other upper class people dressed in black.
#7 wrote: (41:48-41:50) – “It was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Tyler and I just gave it a name.” Ur-Fascism’s point #7:
Fight Club replaces nationalism with hyper-masculinity.To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism
(44:27-44:31) – “Who you were in Fight Club was not who you were in the rest of the world.” Ur-Fascism provides a clear identity to those who feel deprives of one.
(1:03:49) – “First you have to give up. First you have to know not fear, know that someday you’re gonna die.”Cult of death. Ur-Fascism provides a clear identity to those who feel deprives of one.
#9 wrote: (38:40-38:42) – “Everywhere there were rusted nails to snag your elbow on.” The Paper Street house is so run-down and decrepit that it’s a struggle merely to live there and avoid injury. This plays into Ur-Fascism’s point #9:
For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle. Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare.
This theme will become much more explicit later.
(39:32-40:15) – “I’d fight my dad.” Introduction of the running theme of Tyler’s character – his severe daddy issues. Which are, in turn, Jack’s daddy issues. The combination of Jack’s attraction to nurturing maternal figures earlier in the film with Tyler’s/Jack’s clear issues with lacking a strong father figure demonstrate the origins of Jack’s resentful attitude toward women. He likely suffers from an Oedipus Complex and hates himself for it. Additionally, this entire first part of the conversation (and future conversations) between Jack and Tyler about who they would fight if they could fight anyone revisits two of the points of Ur-Fascism –action for action’s sakeandlife is permanent warfare.
Also significant is Tyler’s (and thus Jack’s) rant about his father’s guidance (or rather, lack thereof) leaving him lacking preparation or direction in life, and his frustration with conforming to the typical middle-class lifestyle. He went to college, got a well-paying job, yet still life was empty for him.Appeal to a frustrated middle class.
(43:26-43:40) – “Rule seven: fights will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first night at Fight Club…you have to fight.”Action for action’s sakeandLife is permanent warfare. New members are immediately indoctrinated into the club’s ideology by forcing them to take part in the violence
(45:17-45:23) – “Self-improvement is masturbation. Now self-destruction…”Life is permanent warfare. This also lightly plays into another point of Ur-Fascism, #11:
This will become much more explicit later in the film.This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of the Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as “Long Live Death!”). In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness.
(47:25) – Marla finally re-inserts herself into Jack’s life. She will be key to Jack attempting to de-escalate what he has put into motion and regain his sanity. Notably, Tyler is in the background practicing with nunchuks.Action for action’s sakeandLife is permanent warfare.
(55:35-55:46) – “You give up the condo life, give all your flaming worldly possessions. Go live in a dilapidated house in a toxic waste part of town, and you have to come home…to this.”Life is permanent warfare.
(1:02:25-1:02:37) Next Tyler creates the mark on Jack’s hand by pouring lye onto it.Life is permanent warfare.
Tyler – Jack’s dark half – shuts down Jack’s attempts to shut out the pain with meditation techniques – Jack’s better half. “Stay with the pain, don’t shut this out.”Life is permanent warfare.
(1:02:44) – “Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing.”Life is permanent warfare.
(1:03:21) – “We have to consider the probability that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you.” The subtext is replacing “God” with “father”. Also, morecontempt for the weak(this time from God and fathers for their children) andlife as permanent warfare.
(1:04:04) – “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”Cult of death. Life is permanent warfare. Action for action’s sake.
(1:11:00) – “Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression…is our lives.”Life as permanent warfare.
(1:11:21-1:15:00) – This entire sequence of Tyler asserting his dominance over Lou isaction for action’s sakeandlife as permanent warfare. Tyler deliberately loses the fight, but still asserts his dominance and achieves his goals. And that is why Tyler’s “homework” isn’t a betrayal of the toxically masculine/fascist obsession with domination – it is a recruiting technique, where despite losing the fight the fascists retain their dominance by achieving their overall goal.
(1:30:36) – “You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”Cult of death. Life is permanent warfare.Tyler continues his propaganda indoctrination and hazing of his blackshirts.
(2:15:16) – “I can’t believe he’s standing.” “One tough motherfucker.” Jack/Tyler’s blackshirts take him shooting himself in the cheek totally in stride, because such antics have become normal to them. It brings to mind Jack/Tyler constantly harming himself in an effort to test his limits.Life is permanent warfare.
#10 wrote: (13:06-14:13) – “Oh yeah, Chloe. Chloe looked the way Meryl Streep’s skeleton would look if you made it walk around the party being extra-nice to everybody.” Now that the fantasy of the support groups is shattered, Jack becomes mentally contemptuous of their members. This ties into Ur-Fascism point #10:
(48:23) – “This could go on for hours.” Jack responds to Marla’s attention-seeking suicidal behavior with clear contempt, and his narration implies that he has had lots of experience with this type of behavior before – likely with his mother. Also again recalls theElitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak…In fact, the Leader, knowing that his power was not delegated to him democratically but was conquered by force, also knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler. Since the group is hierarchically organized (according to a military model), every subordinate leader despises his own underlings, and each of them despises his inferiors. This reinforces the sense of mass elitism.contempt for the weakof Ur-Fascism – suicide is weakness, giving into despair rather than continuing the struggle of life.
(1:03:14) – “Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers failed, what does that tell you about God?” And this is how Jack/Tyler’s daddy issues play directly into his fascist ideology. Fascism undermines traditional religion and religious institutions in favor of its own new mythology – again, fascism seeking to co-opt native institutions that are advantageous only as long as they are advantageous, at which point they are replaced with new, fascist-developed institutions.
The Nazis, for example, tolerated the Catholic Church to an extent. Yet many high-ranking Nazis despised Catholicism, and Hitler himself viewed Christianity as weak and disgusting in the Nietzschean sense. High-ranking Nazis formed a cult of neo-pagan and occult mythology, which they hoped to introduce after the war as the new state religion.
Additionally, Tyler comparing the weakness of their father to being a message about the weakness of God, plays into Ur-Fascism ascontempt for the weak. Because their father was flawed and weak, and fathers are to their sons the image of God, God is therefore flawed and weak, and thus worthy of contempt.
(1:03:21) – “We have to consider the probability that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you.” The subtext is replacing “God” with “father”. Also, morecontempt for the weak(this time from God and fathers for their children) andlife as permanent warfare.
(1:05:12-1:05:49) – Jack’s threat to shoot up the office if fired or disciplined.Action for action’s sake.Contempt for the weak.
(1:06:54-1:07:40) – The entire exchange between Marla and Jack as he feels up her breast takes on an entirely different tone with the knowledge Jack and Tyler are the same person. The subtext is not that Marla is fishing for lumps in her breast, but is fishing for a flash of recognition from Jack that they are in a sexual relationship.
That Jack agrees to do this and his body language show clear discomfort and granting Marla some level of modesty shows that Jack’s fanatical devotion to Tyler’s ideology is already cracking.
Marla’s narrative purpose is to represent the female gender as a whole (as non-maternal figures) as well as lower-class people in general. Her influence allows Jack an outlet for empathizing with women and lower-class people – it erodes at his fascisticcontempt for the weakandmachismo. And ultimately, the erosion of that ideological commitment allows Jack to regain his sanity and identity at the end.
(1:25:53) – “What are you getting out of all this? Is this making you happy? I don’t get it, why does a weaker person have to latch onto a strong person?” Jack’s confusion is indicative of his lingering internal struggle concerning his new fascist ideology as well as a reflection of that ideology.Contempt for the weak.
#11 wrote: (45:17-45:23) – “Self-improvement is masturbation. Now self-destruction…” Life is permanent warfare. This also lightly plays into another point of Ur-Fascism, #11:
This will become much more explicit later in the film.This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of the Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as “Long Live Death!”). In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness.
(1:02:40-1:02:43) – “The pure self was made from the ashes of heroes, like the first monkey shot into space.” Ur-Fascism’s point #11:
(1:03:49) – “First you have to give up. First you have to know not fear, know that someday you’re gonna die.”In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.
(1:04:04) – “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”Cult of death. Life is permanent warfare. Action for action’s sake.
(1:21:53) – “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.”Cult of death.
(1:27:32-1:29:27) – The direct recruitment of Project Mayhem begins. They dress and serve a purpose exactly like fascist blackshirts. Their willpower is tested by both physical and mental hazing. They are quartered in pseudo-military-style barracks. They are dressed in a uniform that deliberately resembles that of the blackshirts: “Got two black shirts? Two pair black pants? Two pair black boots? Two pair black socks? One black jacket? $300 personal burial money? Alright.” From the very beginning, Tyler’s blackshirts are indoctrinated to expect their inevitable death at any moment.Cult of death.
(1:30:06) – “Like a monkey ready to be shot into outer space. Like a space monkey! Ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good.”Cult of death.
(1:30:36) – “You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”Cult of death. Life is permanent warfare.Tyler continues his propaganda indoctrination and hazing of his blackshirts. (BTW this was the exact moment the first time I watched the film where I started wondering if Durden wasactuallyadvocating for fascism)
(1:37:48-1:41:26) – “Look at you! You’re fucking pathetic! Stop trying to control everything and just let go. LET GO!” Cult of death. Arguably the most blatant example in the film. And yet Robert Paulson is yet to come. Tyler also betrays his own hypocrisy by fastening his seatbelt.
Additionally, very subtle foreshadowing as Jack, despite having been in the passenger seat, is dragged out of the driver’s side after the car flips.
(1:47:15-1:47:56) – “In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name.”Cult of death.And arguably the biggest example of it, combined with the car crash sequence earlier. It hits upon the further context of that point of Ur-Fascism:
Bob is killed serving the party, and in death becomes a fixture of the mythology, mindlessly worshiped by his compatriots as an example to which to aspire.In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of the Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as “Long Live Death!”). In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.
#12 wrote: (2:06) – The opening credits zoom out through Jack’s nose and up the barrel and sights of a pistol pointed down Jack’s throat. This is clear submissive phallic symbolism – the gun is a phallic symbol that is shoved down Jack’s throat, implying Jack is the submissive partner in a sexual relationship and is currently giving oral sex. The audience is instantly, subconsciously informed of the nature of Jack and Tyler’s relationship – Tyler is dominant, Jack is submissive.
(2:23-2:28) – “For a second I totally forget about Tyler’s whole ‘controlled demolition’ thing and wonder how clean that gun is.” Remember that the gun is a phallic symbol, and so this is symbolically Jack wondering about the cleanliness of Tyler’s penis, which had just been in his mouth.
(2:29) – “Getting exciting now.” Likely has a double meaning referring to sexual climax. Also ties into Ur-Fascism point #12:
(24:16-) – “And now a question of etiquette as I pass by giving the ass or the crotch.” Tyler says before he proceeds to turn sideways and “give the crotch” as he passes by a stewardess bending over in the aisle. Tyler demonstrates his contempt for women and attitudes concerning the importance of sexual dominance in one line and action. This ties into point #12 of Ur-Fascism:“Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons – doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.”
(29:15-29:15) – “You know man, it could be worse. A woman could cut off your penis while you sleep and toss it out of the window of a moving car.” More misogyny and fear of castration/emasculation. A reminder to keep in mind that all conversations between Jack and Tyler are Jack’s internal monologue, his ruminations on his emerging fascist ideology.Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters. This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality).
(40:15-40:29) – Jack/Tyler of course balks at the prospect of getting married. If his father abandoned him at a young age, the memory of his parents’ marriage is an unhappy one, and thus marriage is a concept with which he associates unhappiness. “We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.” More misogyny, and it also brings back to prominence the Ur-Fascist points ofmachismoandrejection of modernism. Fascism is a reaction against the perceived “degeneration of society”, and in Fight Club that is represented by the “feminization” of society.
(47:53) – “I’ve found a new one. It’s for men only.”The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.Machismo.“Like the testicle thing?” Marla also reminds Jack of the testicular cancer support group; this makes Jack visibly uncomfortable because it unwittingly implies an association of Fight Club with emasculation.
(53:15-53:46) – “I can’t have you talking to her about me.” Keep in mind that this means Jack can’t talk to Marla about the darker side of his psyche as well as his fascist ideology, even as Jack-as-Tyler is the one having sex with Marla. To Jack’s darker, hyper-masculine, and fascist half, Marla (as with all women) is an object to be used for sex at his pleasure.Machismo. But Marla also represents a threat – that her influence can bring Jack back from the brink.
(1:06:54-1:07:40) – The entire exchange between Marla and Jack as he feels up her breast takes on an entirely different tone with the knowledge Jack and Tyler are the same person. The subtext is not that Marla is fishing for lumps in her breast, but is fishing for a flash of recognition from Jack that they are in a sexual relationship.
That Jack agrees to do this and his body language show clear discomfort and granting Marla some level of modesty shows that Jack’s fanatical devotion to Tyler’s ideology is already cracking.
Marla’s narrative purpose is to represent the female gender as a whole (as non-maternal figures) as well as lower-class people in general. Her influence allows Jack an outlet for empathizing with women and lower-class people – it erodes at his fascisticcontempt for the weakandmachismo. And ultimately, the erosion of that ideological commitment allows Jack to regain his sanity and identity at the end.
(1:27:00) – “Guy or girl?” “What do you care if it’s a guy or a girl?” Jack immediately gets defensive when it’s implied that he could have been harmed by a woman.Machismo.
(1:32:17) – “She’s hot.” As the police commissioner talks about opening an investigation into the Fight Clubs and their vandalism, Blonde’s top concern is how hot the news reporter looks.Machismo.
(1:51:56-1:52:13) – “You fuck me, then snub me. You love me, you hate me. You show me a sensitive side, then you turn into a total asshole. Is that a pretty accurate description of our relationship, Tyler?” Textbook case of an abusive relationship.Machismo.
Also ironic (and likely a case of deliberate foreshadowing) is how Jack used fake names repeatedly when attending the support groups at the beginning of the film, and later uses Tyler Durden as his pseudonym in all aspects of his life – Fight Club, his relationship with Marla, everything; the narrator, Jack, is deliberately nameless because he is only important as the audience surrogate – his personality as Tyler is what drives the plot forward until the very end.
(2:02:16) – Once again, castration is used as the ultimate fear and punishment of members of Project Mayhem. If is indicative of their own, persistent insecurity despite the presentation of themselves as hyper-masculine – despite that castration would do nothing to prevent a traitor from talking, it is viewed as the ultimate punishment for betrayal. Because to members of Project Mayhem, to be castrated is on the same level as death.Machismo.
Additionally, the fascists have infiltrated every traditional power structure. They have co-opted the framework of the state, will soon destroy the parts which threaten their power, and plan to replace them with those of their own devise.
(2:16:15) – And the film closes on the brief flash of a flaccid penis. Amazing.
And to end, the concluding statement:#13 wrote: (1:03:49) – “First you have to give up. First you have to know not fear, know that someday you’re gonna die.”Cult of death. Ur-Fascism provides a clear identity to those who feel deprives of one.Fascist ideologies encouraged the destruction of individual identity in favor of collective identity, per point #13 of Ur-Fascism:
In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view—one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People.
This took me a fucking lot of effort to convert to this specific format and anyone who actually reads this thread better fucking appreciate it.Fight Club is a film about the struggle within the average modern man for a new identity as times change and the old definitions either fade away or become exposed as lies. It is also the story of how in turbulent times, people can be seduced by an ideology that seems to fill the void of identity and presents itself as an alternative to the old and the overly radical, yet is ultimately self-destructive. And in the end, it combines both of these central themes to end on the protagonist defeating the self-destructive and toxic elements within himself and establishing a new, healthy identity for himself moving forward.
