Re:
Self Destruction vs. Self-Improvement
"You can't help yourselves because your SELF sucks." ~ Billy Bob Thornton as "Dr. P"
He speaks truth here, because most people try to improve from the vantage point their at, without knowing where they are at from a place of pain. Many times we try to IMPROVE from a bad place. Better would be to IMPROVE from a good place. In the movie, Jack, who is now the awakened Tyler Durden @ the end, CAN improve from a better place. He DESTRUCTED his FALSE beliefs about life. That's where HEALTHY SELF DESTRUCTION can help an individual.
Far too often, the fears and pains are nurtured, when in reality the person only needs to see they are false concepts of a damaged mind. That can be healed...
It isn't the PHYSICAL place where you are that determines who you are or is indicative of your life, but who YOU are. In this case, trying to SLAP anything on a false person, or a person with false beliefs that are leading him astray, will on yield failure, and a reversion BACK to his/her formerself.
If there's anything to take from this movie, it was that Tyler GUIDED "Jack" (though they were the same character AND name), through his greatest fears. If everybody had a Tyler/Jack combo, then many people would do the things they desire in life. However, "Jacks" Ego was to frail from the womanized society he lived chock full of programming that he didn't know he was his own worst enemy. He constantly tried to bandaid his INTERNAL pain with EXTERNAL appendages, such as owning many possessions that he felt would eventually COMPLETE and DEFINE him, asking the doctor to prescribe meds, and attending help groups for near-death people. He was able to wallow in the misery of life and feel like ALL life was "this way," rather than face the glaring pain that he, and he alone was the source of his pain. Maybe he couldn't immediately change his job, but he certainly CAN control his second-to-second mood. And that was what Tyler introduced him to, amongst other things.
Tyler wasn't alpha. The concept of Alpha applies to banging within an animal/mammal tribe. That's quite a narrow concept for such a wide-open book. And having read Chuck's other books, I don't think his entire intention was to motivate guys into being alpha. If you read Choke, or Diary, or any of his other stuff, you see he portrays pretty screwed up people with such clarity that you might think he's screwed up, too.
Guys, you're BIGGEST problem is TRYING TO BE TYLER. Even the book should demonstrate that. "Jack" was trying to BE someone else, something else. You can't TRY to be ALPHA. You can't INTEND anything to get an outcome without sacrificing something else. All you're doing with that stuff is trying to Don a mask to hideaway from the biggest pain of all....
Being yourself, TRULY, and doing what you want to do.
Would you want a woman who likes or loves you for anything else? (Maybe you don't care if she just wants to fvck you, but that's not "success").
Would you want friends who know you as someone different? Would you want to know a friend who dons a mask only to be your friend?
"Jack" dodged his soul, almost afraid of his inherent nature as a man, and as a person. He was meak at work. Never spoke with women. He tried to be all the ideals everyone ELSE wanted him to be, yet he never found TRUE happiness. All because...he never did what HE WANTED. He never controlled HIS emotions. Every direction in life was someone ELSE's choice. His job. His possessions. Perhaps even his family life.
If anything, Guys need to BLOW up the preconceived notions they have about themselves, tap into the wellspring of power in themselves, and start fresh. Most guys hurt the most with women BECAUSE their urge to fvck is one of the strongest we have. We can do without a large TV, but for men acquiring resources is easy. It could happen today, or years, but we'll get it. However the sex drive is strongest, almost uncontrolled, and men are bombarded by images all day long. No wonder the thing they desire most to fix is also one of the strongest biological urges we possess. Guys go to THAT SPOT, figuring it MIGHT fix everything else. And in a way it does, because it reveals the compensating and unbalanced weakness and unhappiness elsewhere in one's life.
Banging a breed of hotter chick DOES not require new skills, it requires new eyes with which to see the world, and a new you. One who is true inside and out.
And for those who want to continue quoting or following this movie and Durden's principles, do yourself a favor and read the book.
A-Unit