I thought I would do a post about Fight Club since it was so interesting. The first thing I have to say is that I never thought I would have watched a movie like that for a class. I am so use to movie having to be so “safe” for high school that a movie such as Fight Club was really surprising to watch for a class. A common theme throughout the movie was consumerism.

Tyler Durden: The things you own end up owning you.

Tyler Durden: We're consumers. We are by-products 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. Narrator: Martha Stewart. Tyler Durden: 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 Strinne green stripe patterns.

Narrator: I flipped through catalogs and wondered: What kind of dining set defines me as a person?

Tyler Durden: Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of materiel possessions.

Narrator: When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.

I think these ideas ring true. So often, people want to own something just because of the brand name. When one sees a certain car or a certain brand name, they instantly classify them. This need for having a certain brand is dangerous. People begin to think that they can only live and be happy if the have the latest and the best. Over the course of this unit, we have discussed poverty and both the causes and solutions for it. Is consumerism a possible cause for poverty? Are people always trying to get the best so they spend more money then they have? Why has society become so obsessed with material goods? I think Fight Club was trying to say something about the dangerous of consumerism. It was trying to make people realize how a change is needed. By putting everyone back at zero, people would no longer be defined by what they owned, but by who they are. Could this ever really happen? Can society ever become not material based?