April 23, 2007

Tyler Durden's Thoughts on Modern Life

The following excerpts from Fight Club seem somehow appropriate in the wake of the recent British Navy surrender:

Tyler Durden: Do you know what a duvet is?

Jack the Narrator: It's a comforter.

Tyler: It's a blanket. It's a fucking blanket. Now, why do guys like you and me know what a "duvet" is? Is this essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. What are we then?

Jack: Consumers...

Tyler: We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra...

Jack: Martha Stewart...

Tyler: Fuck Martha Stewart! Martha's polishing the brass on the titanic. It's all going down man! So fuck off with your sofa units, and string green stripe patterns.

Today, we obsess about the exact shade of our children's duvets while we ignore the shady bullshit being pumped into their heads everyday at their government schools. We obsess about the performance of the New York Stock Exchange, while we avoid the bigger question--namely: will the New York Stock Exchange be vaporized before we have a chance to cash out?
Tyler: You ever been in a fight?

Jack: No, but that's a good thing.

Tyler: No, it isn't. How much can you possibly know about yourself if you've never been in a fight? I don't wanna die without any scars.

How far are we willing to go to avoid those bruises and scars? How much are we willing to tolerate so long as our mutual funds keep trending up? Is there a point at which we come to the collective realization that comfort, luxury and a healthy retirement plan are not the end-all, be-all of human existence?

By Ragnar Danneskjold, Typical Bitter Gun-Clinger at 02:34 PM | |