"We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression." ~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 19
Read the quote while watching the video. What does this mean to you? Please comment
2 comments:
Thank you for asking this Jeremy.
I think my battle - our battle really - is against a culture that caters to our baser fears & desires.
We all know that united behind our greatest hoped & aspirations our civilization(s) are capable of great things. And I think we all know that cultures that bring expression to deep fears & base desires are vile (think Afghanistan under the Taliban as a fear/anger/hate-based reaction to American intervention, or Palestinian suicide bombers as a reaction to Israel).
Where I think we get lost, confused... sink into subtle depressions instead of full-out-battle-cry-rages is inside cultures that articulate fears and base desires more subtly. Think Los Angeles or Dallas bourgeoise... cultures that cater to the "you must have fake breasts and drive a Mercedes to be loved" paradigm.
But then realize that fear-based, rat-race, have-and-have-not-thinking effects all of us every day.
An IKEA catalogue that tells you you must have this or no one is going to want to marry you is not quite so in-your-face as the missle launch in North Korea this morning. America's Next Top Model telling girls they must do x, y, and z or they're not beautiful is far more subtle than anti-American sentiment on the streets of Tehran.
It's a subtle paradigm shift and that is why I think it's so tricky to talk about, this "great depression," "one ring," "great sadness," "the darkness" - or whatever any epic or religious text choses to call it.
It might not be quite so tricky to talk about some other fear-based expressions our culture is right now engaging: our involvement in Afghanistan as a fear-based-fight-against-the-communist-threat. Our involvement in Iraq as a reaction to 911.
In Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill claims that it is impossible for the brain to be occupied by positive and negative emotions at the same time.
Likewise it is impossible for a culture flooded by fear, hatred, anger to be occupied by love, esteem, and so forth.
I think this is the battle we all engage... the depression we fight... not exactly being able to put a name to the darkness, but revolving in a world that often expresses the darkness en-masse and culturally.
It's something I have been battling in my own life / business: making sure that my work caters to the good in others and not to their baser fears (e.g. vanity / fear of not being accepted / fear of not being fat / fear of not being loved). It would be very easy for me - and has been very easy for me at times - as a person to cross over in any given moment and play off someone's fears to get them to do business with me. Get ten trainers under me and, if I'm not in the right frame of mind or place with God I have the potential to lead an entire gym into darkness.
Or light. If I fight for it.
And so I have come to understand that I have to fight "the great depression" moment-to-moment, day after day. Maybe someday I'll cross over and be just eternally good. I doubt it. I think I'm always going to find that, like Harry Potter, I have a little bit of Voldemort in me or that, like Luke Skywalker, I have a little Darth Vader in me.
The fight is daily.
Thought more about this.
Think this is appropriate:
"Get By" - Talib Kweli
We sell, crack to our own out the back of our homes
We smell the musk at the dusk in the crack of the dawn
We go through "Epidodes II," like "Attack of the Clones"
Work 'til we break our back and you hear the crack of the bone
To get by.. just to get byJust to get by, just to get by
We commute to computers
Spirits stay mute while you eagles spread rumors
We survivalists, turned to consumers
To get by.. just to get byJust to get by, just to get by
Ask Him why some people got to live in a trailer, cuss like a sailor
I paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer
Me Abuela raised three daughters all by herself, with no help
I think about a struggle and I find the strength in myself
These words, melt in my mouth
They hot, like the jail cell in the SouthBefore my nigga Core bailed me out
To get by.. just to get byJust to get by, just to get by
We do or die like Bed-Stuy through the red skywith the window of the red eye
Let the lead fly, some G. Rap shit, "Livin' to Let Die"
[Chorus]This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my highs, and my lowsIn my soul, and my goals
Just to stop smokin, and stop drinkin
And I've been thinkin - I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)Just to get (by), just to get (by)
We keeping it gangster say "fo shizzle", "fo sheezy" and "stayin crunk"
Its easy to pull a breezy, smoke trees, and we stay drunk
Yo, our activism attackin the system, the blacks and latins in prison
Numbers of prison they victim black in the vision
Shit and all they got is rappin to listen to
I let them know we missin you, the love is unconditional
Even when the condition is critical, when the livin is miserable
Your position is pivotal, I ain't bullshittin you
Now, why would I lie? Just to get by?Just to get by, we get fly
The TV got us reachin for stars
Not the ones between Venus and Mars, the ones that be readin for parts
Some people get breast enhancements and penis enlargers
Saturday sinners Sunday morning at the feet of the Father
They need somethin to rely on, we get high on all types of drug
When, all you really need is love
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
Our parents sing like John Lennon, "Imagine all the people watch"
We rock like Paul McCartney from now until the last Beatle drop
[Chorus]This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my high's, and my low'sIn my soul, and my goals
Just to stop smoking, and stop drinking
And I've been thinking - I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Yoyoyo, yo
Some people cry, and some people try
Just to get by, for a piece of the pie
You love to eat and get high
We decieve when we lie, and we keepin it fly
Yoyoyo, yo
When, the people decide, to keep a disguise
Can't see they eyes, see the evil inside
But there's people you find
Strong or feeble in mind, I stay readin the signs
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