ℹ️ This is not a newsletter, nor is it a weekly update one can expect to be delivered every Sunday. These are just random thoughts or ideas I come across and pin down during the week.
This week I re-watched Fight Club and wanted to write down some of its quotes and takeaways. For some reason, only this time around I saw the clear connection between the movie's themes and Nietzsche's thoughts and ideas.
What if our existence is pointless?
From a consumerism point of view, I found a lot of similarities between the movie theme and Diogenes' way of life.
What if God doesn't like us?
It generates an implicit awareness to the fact that social constructs are nothing more than a superficial layer of culture that suppresses our true nature.
The movie encourages us to discard social expectations and live according to our own values.
How to find meaning in a meaningless existence?
This theme reminded me about Nietzsche's idea that "God is dead". It builds on top of the idea of self-destruction as the destruction of a false self. Stop being perfect, stop creating an identity through material wealth and societal status.
This self construct is a pre-requisite and must be destroyed before embracing our true nature and live according to our own values.
The narrative centers around avoiding the pursue of endless self-improvement (better house, better job, better car, better body, more money...) and just be happy with how things are and take life as it comes. Which in turn, has two actionable outputs:
Published on August 09, 2020