Classical Social Theory: An Anti-Consumerist Theory In The Fight Club

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The writer of fight club took an anti-consumerist approach to the writing, and this was adapted into the film. Examples of Classical social theories written by Marx, Weber, and Durkheim are obvious to anyone that has ever studied sociological theory. The book/film wasn’t written at the same time as the theories, but instead goes to show that the theories predicted how society might evolve into more consumerist communities. This has proven to be true as evolution has occurred and the population has increased; creating a higher rate of supply and demand for commodities. At the beginning of the film, the nameless narrator that will be referred to as “Jack” experiences alienation as seen in Marx’s essay Estranged Labor “The worker becomes a slave Someone dictates to him how to do his job and he has no say in anything that would allow him to produce products of his own desires. Jack travels a lot for his job and feels that the work he does has isolated him from himself, his coworkers, and his place in society. The job he does focuses on production and not building relationships in the work He felt that if we were able to escape the need of commodities, the need to make money for these commodities, and somehow escape the societal structure that says we have to do things and own things to fit in then we would finally escape the iron cage. The problem with this lies in the fact that in order to break free of these social norms, you would be giving up all things that are now considered necessary in order to survive. We do not NEED a house, do not NEED electricity, or phones, or other general “things”. There was a time people when lived in caves, and that was enough to survive; with primitive instinct. However, society evolved and we now live in houses, apartments, and other normalized structures. So, even when you take away materialistic possessions and live within these means, you are still within the capitalist society of a housing market. In a nutshell; one can never truly break free from the iron

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