Elements of Nihilism and Anarcho-Primitivism in Fight Club

Nihilism and anarcho-primitivism play a large role in Fight Club and the story seems to endlessly revolve around these two elements. Violence is expressed as an attribute of masculinity and that in order for a male to fully experience life violence must be a large part of it. In the underground fighting arena, violence prevails and this gruesome activity is flaunted as the culmination of social interaction. Fight Club starts off as an underground fighting arena where normal, everyday individuals get together and barbarously decimate each other until only one individual is left standing. Though for much of the movie Fight Club was simply a weekly brawl that individuals looked forward too, it quickly became increasingly institutionalized as the movie progressed. Fight Club eventually turned into an institutionalized, nihilistic, anarcho-primitivistic organization of nameless individuals that participate in terrorist activities throughout the city.

The story of Fight Club and its nihilistic beginnings start with the narrator and his comments on life. The narrator points out the extent to which corporations have become ingrained into everyday life and suggests that corporations will rule space in the future. Corporations are seen by the narrator as the primary instigator of consumerism and that material culture is a negative influence upon society. The narrator then joins therapy groups in an effort to find the meaning of life by being in the presence individuals in pain. As he connects with Bob, one of the characters in the film played by the musician Meatloaf, the narrator states that "losing all hope was freedom." This is the beginning of the nihilistic strain found in Fight Club and illustrates the connection that the main character has with the absence of meaning. By having no meaning and hope whatsoever, the narrator was finally freed from a consumerist, individualistic shell that dominated his life.

Another prominent nihilistic strain in Fight Club is the fascination that Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, has with explosive weaponry and crude, homemade destructive devices. This element of Tyler Durden, though it may not be nihilistic in nature, has strong connections to nihilistic behavior. Tyler's behavior in Fight Club is eerily similar to the teachings of Theodore Kaczynski, the infamous “Unabomber.” Kaczynski was well steeped in the knowledge of crude explosive devices and shares many of the ideological beliefs that Tyler Durden often speaks of in the film, such as contempt for modern civilization and its minimal focus on the primal nature of mankind. As the storyline progressed, the narrator became increasingly disgusted with consumerism and the modern outlook of social interaction. This is best shown by the narrator’s own criticism of his wardrobe: “AX ties, DKNY shoes, CK shirts, never mind.” The narrator realizes that he has been brought into the consumerist culture and seems to be increasingly disturbed by the affect it has had on his life. At a pivotal point in the plot of Fight Club, the narrator discovers that his apartment has been destroyed by an unknown terrorist and that all his belongings had been obliterated. This signals an end to the narrator's connection to consumerism and only through destructive behavior is he freed from a life of enslavement to corporate society. In a turn of events, the narrator begins to live with Tyler Durden in a disgusting and rundown house. The house has no clean running water, the walls are falling apart and leaks constantly appear throughout the household when rainy weather arrives. This stands in sharp contrast to the living quarters the narrator used to reside in and illustrates the freedom that he has obtained by placing himself in the filthy house. In essence, the film is trying to compare the absence of responsibility and cleanliness to masculinity and nihilistic freedom.

The relationship between Tyler Durden and the narrator seems to be quite dominant-submissive for most of the film. The narrator often takes a backseat to many of Tyler's antics and absorbs much of the latter's ideological stances on the various issues surrounding their relationship. In one of their first meetings, Tyler says to the narrator that he should let the “chips fall were they may,” that “things you own end up owning you” and states that “self-improvement is masturbation and self-destruction.” These ideas are quite nihilistic and anarcho-primitivistic in nature illustrating the deep ideological connection Durden has with these two identities. As the narrator introduces Tyler Durden more thoroughly to the audience, he mentions that Durden creates a significant amount of mischief at his jobs. For instance, the narrator speaks of times when Tyler urinates in the food that he prepares for a local restaurant and that he can often be found splicing pornographic imagines into films that he manages at regional cinemas. This is all categorized by the narrator as “guerrilla terrorism in the hospitality” industry and makes a connection between Tyler's ideology and his actions in life. In addition, Tyler's relationship with women is completely lustful and is void of any emotional connection whatsoever. This is another instance of Durden's underlying anarcho-primitivistic and nihilistic ideology that encompasses the film.

In one conversation Tyler Durden has with the narrator he points out the importance of hunter-gatherer societies and the disdain attributed to the fact that modern civilization has separated itself almost entirely from humanity's primitive foundations. Durden states that pain, fighting, and masculinity are fundamental to hunter-gatherer societies and that these are the elements that establish true human interpersonal relationships. In anarcho-primitivistic circles, the hunter-gatherer society is looked upon as the culmination of human interaction and that only with the onset of the agrarian revolution did human society truly begin to decline. This is another strong piece of evidence to suggest that Durden's ideology, though nihilistic in strategy, is quite anarcho-primivistic at its base.

At a climatic moment of the movie, Tyler Durden begins to pour the highly reactive chemical Lime onto the hand of the narrator. As the narrator screams in agony, Tyler Durden attempts to teach the narrator important lessons that must be incorporated into his life. Durden begins to explain that God must hate humanity because he has abandoned the world, just like the fathers of Durden and the narrator abandoned their families. Tyler tells the narrator that redemption is meaningless and that humanity does not need God. In one of the most passionate yet gruesome moments of the entire film, Durden says to the narrator, as he is burning the latter's hand with lime, that only “after we have lost everything are we free to do anything.” Again, this is a clear nihilistic belief that Durden finds so important that he must coercively imprint it into the narrator's mind. By the end of the movie, the narrator seems convinced of Durden's philosophy saying that he world love to “open oil tankers and smoother all the French beaches I had never seen.” The narrator is here endorsing a nihilistic approach to the destruction of a highly beloved element of modern consumerist, corporate society.

The underlying elements of Fight Club are as vast as they are vital in understanding the entirety of the film’s message. Though the storyline begins with an almost homosexual aurora of uber-masculinity and violence, it later alters these attributes into a nihilistic undertone. Fight Club is transformed from two different personalities brawling in the streets, expressing their masculinity, to a well institutionalized organization of anarcho-primitivistic, nihilistic terrorists. The story seems to take the position that nihilism and masculinity are somewhat compatible but the hypocrisies present in the delivery of the message blur the premises. Masculinity and violence, for the most part, are inseparable but the focus of the film illogically brings these primordial attributes to a largely undesired extreme. It is only through an end to all attachment to modern social consumerist chains that Durden and the narrator feel that freedom could finally be achieved.