Fight Club
Lots of people I talk to, especially young, white, male 20-somethings, enjoy the movie Fight Club. It’s not just the fine acting from Pitt and Norton they like, it’s the anti-establishment, anti-Ikea, anti-consumerist ideas that appeal to them. Who doesn’t want to throw all of his posessions away, move into a disused house on Paper Street, and start a club to fight other people?
As the movie shows, the natural end to all this is to form a nation-wide group whose only goal is to force everyone else to do the same. How is this accomplished? Destroy the credit card companies, of course. There is, I believe, a subtle flaw to the entire plan.
Though Tyler Durden’s planning and execution of a massive attack on finance was well done, he never really thought past the point of explosion. He naively says, “if you erase the debt record, we all go back to zero.” Sure, that sounds great in theory, but in reality chaos would ensue. If suddenly tomorrow all of our credit institutions disappeared, America would be screwed.
How much cash do you keep on hand? A few hundred at the most? Imagine if you suddenly didn’t have access to your credit card or debit card; and neither did anyone else. There would be pandemonium. Riots and looting would break out almost instantaneously as people try to obtain goods to keep their family going.
The government would immediately move in the National Guard to stop the rioting. Ah, but how to keep the troops loyal when their paychecks are worth a damn? Bribe them with food. The government would immediately nationalize all farms in the country to supply this army and hold the power. While they are at it, they would probably nationalize every other producer in the country, creating a massive, government-controlled economy.
From what I gather, converting a capitalistic republic to a military socialist dictatorship overnight is not going “back to zero.” Quite the opposite, the people would be beholden to the government and you can sure as hell guess where that will end up.
I’m sure none of his follower’s thought all this through. Otherwise, I’m sure they would gladly put up with a bunch of cheap goods from Ikea if it means also being able to eat and live in a free society.
You may ask yourself why the plot of a 9-year-old film is worthy of discussion now. In light of recent events, I propose that Mr. Durden was doing it all wrong. If he really wanted to destroy our consumerist culture without taking everything else out at the same time, he should have offered cheap credit to everyone, no matter what their financial situation. Over a period of several years, our populous would be forced to borrow more and more to cover costs, and financial institutions would push bad securities all over the globe. Eventually, this would all come tumbling down, like the painful collapse of financial institutions that we are seeing now. Slow enough to “go back to zero,” but not too fast in which we have to become slaves to the government, at least not yet.
Sure, it’s not as glamourous as destroying high-rise buildings, but it keeps with the spirit of the movie.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Tags: fight club, financial crisis