Tyler Durden Lives.

Merriam Webster defines the word Prophet as follows:

Full Definition of PROPHET

1:  one who utters divinely inspired revelations: as

 

a often capitalized :  the writer of one of the prophetic books of the Bible

 

b capitalized :  one regarded by a group of followers as the final authoritative revealer of God’s willProphet

 of Allah>

2:  one gifted with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight; especially :  an inspired poet

3:  one who foretells future events :  predictor

4:  an effective or leading spokesman for a cause, doctrine, or group

5Christian Science

a :  a spiritual seer

 

b :  disappearance of material sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth

 

 

 

 

Perhaps it is fitting one of the biggest Prophets of modern times is a fictional character: From the pages of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club steps a fully formed prophet of social revolution: Tyler Durden. I already hear my readers grumbling that Tyler is not the prophet. Clearly, the prophet has to be Chuck Palahniuk himself. In that, you are both right and wrong.

 

Mr. Palahniuk himself wrote the words that explain their symbiosis in his novel when the previously unnamed Sebastian says,” Tyler’s words coming from my mouth, and I used to be such a nice guy.” I could stand here and misquote Fight Club dialogue all day long. (I understand this because Tyler understands this) I have read the book more times than I care to count. I have poured over every single panel of the comic books (Waiting with almost comedic impatience from one issue to the next for the currently running sequel) So how does a fictional character become a prophet?

 

 

 

Simple, Tyler Durden says more that is REAL than anyone alive. If you don’t believe me read the books for yourselves. You will feel it as keenly as I do. Everyone is feeling that something is wrong with the world, but no one is stepping out to do anything about it in a real meaningful way. Yet there is hope. Tyler speaks (always in the voice of Brad Pitt and we should love him for that). He tells us that there is a plan. Project Mayhem is going strong. He was never really gone. Sebastian has just been in a drug-induced quasi- waking sleep for a decade. Missing that much time means that there is much work to do. We don’t have time to do that work nicely.

 

Sure, guys, I know it is a story.

 

Here is the thing to that. Stories, even fictional ones, can have true meaning.

 

They ARE lying to you.

They want us weak and unthinking.

They commit the crime of trying to control our minds.

They are winning.

They tell us where and how to live.

They tell us what words we can say.

They tell us the Gods we can worship while taking all the Gods away.

They tell us what to eat and what not to.

They tell us who to love.

They tell us how to fuck.

They control every aspect of our lives.

Social rebellion has become scripted and easy.

Standing out is fitting in.

We are bored.

We are angry.

We have no idea what to do about these things.

 

The Matrix taught us that the system had to have flaws for people to accept it. This is the truth. Utopia does not work. They are manufacturing a conflict to keep people calm and in order. We cannot stop them because we are too busy fighting among ourselves about things that we do not really care about.

 

Fight Club 2 has given us two mottos. The first is “Tyler Lives”. This is the rallying cry. It tells us that our Prophet has returned. The second is “Rize or Die”. This tells us that the time has come to do something about them or lay back and die like the fattened sheep we have been made into.

 

It isn’t as simple, of course, as the Space Monkeys would make it be in the frames of the film or the panels of the comic book. Change is attainable. I am starting to realize how.

 

The first rule of Project Revolution is that you have to talk about Project Revolution. The media and politicians are picking our issues for us. We are arguing about legalizing weed, aborting babies, gender equality, republicans, democrats, race, religion, and which one of these already rich and powerful assholes should be the President. While we are distracted by that talk people are being abused, kids are getting molested, more people are killing and hurting each other in bigger ways than ever before in the history of time. This is happening because the system is sick and broken. We have become preoccupied with consumerism and narcissism and it has distracted us from our basic humanity.

 

It must change.

It cannot change by doing the same thing.

Electing politicians to office will not change anything.

Anyone who wants that power should not be trusted with it.

Have you ever stopped to think why an already rich and powerful person would want to take a pay cut to take on the most stressful job on the planet?

There must be fringe benefits.

 

 

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein

Perhaps Chuck Palahniuk is the prophet himself and Tyler is merely the engine by which he dispenses his wisdom. In the late 90s, the world seemed full of grungy late teens and twenty-somethings looking for meaning. Along comes, Tyler and he says,” I want you to hit me as hard as you can.” For a time we found purpose and meaning in the heavy thump of bare knuckles pounding into willing flesh.

Tyler told us that we were not unique snowflakes.
We were the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.
We got scars.
We felt wise.
We got tattoos.
We felt enlightened.
We reveled in it.
Our hair grew long.
Our beards grew thick.
We began to go to the gym.
We felt extreme.
We felt powerful.
We became the Starbucks generation.
We lost our edge.
We ate organic.
We counted calories.
We began to wear khakis.
We returned to our cubicles.
We wore Buddy Holly style eyeglasses.
We wore the uniform and looked like everyone else with our tattoo sleeves and our gel-styled hair while we proclaimed our unique special independence.
We forgot.

The message was lost.

We don’t need anarchy in the world.
We need to recognize that we have the power and the ability to govern ourselves.
Political Correctness is destroying our ability to speak honestly.
We are trading our freedoms for a more comfortable cage.

There is no Republican or Democrat Party.
There is only an illusion of conflict to mask the control of our thoughts and feelings.
By polarizing the populace around divisive ideas They are keeping us complacent.
We allow them their power by virtue of our inaction.
We fly to our doom as peaceful as Hindu Cows.
We could be the greatest generation.
We could put right what has gone wrong.
We are not a cause.
We are not a flag.

We simply need to get off our dead asses and act. Rize or Die.