"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh%# we don't need, and the things you own, end up owning you."
-Tyler Durden, Fight Club (1999)
Have you seen Fight Club? It was a defining film for an entire generation and it's now twenty-five years old. If you haven't seen it, it's ok. We'll watch a few scenes together and talk about it. How much has changed since 1999? According to Fight Club, at that time, people were slaves to consumerism and capitalism. Was that true? Is it true today? Are we, in the words of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt's iconic character) "working jobs we hate so we can sh%# we don't need"?
Fight Club is cemented into our popular culture. It's one of the most thoughtful films of the last fifty years. It questions everything from consumerism to capitalism to how and why we live our lives. So let's watch a few scenes from Fight Club, painstakingly chosen by Leon, a psychologist, student of life, and a huge movie fan. Let's talk about those things. Is capitalism the future? Are you familiar with the concept of the Keynesian economy? How is that different from what we have now? Globalisation and neoliberalism led us to where we are but are they the future?
Let's watch scenes from a ground-breaking film and let's have an open-minded, intelligent, and enlightening discussion!