Fight Club and more

So today I watched Alejandro's favorite movie Fight Club and had an extended conversation with him afterward, as usual. I must admit that he noticed a lot more substance in the movie than I did. For example, the big thing we talked about was Project Mayhem. AT first I viewed it as merely organized acts to release pressure accumulated in daily, boring life. But only after his kind reminder did I remember hearing something about the Project Mayhem's objective being "destroy the beautiful and restart the world."

Okay.

I paused for a moment because 1) I did not see it coming and almost believed for a second that this objective is kind of beautiful in itself; 2) something just sounds intrinsically wrong to me and I could not point it out at that very moment. And then I realized what it was. I've seen this before. I've seen lines like that before. Notably, in Death Note. Raito is this teenager who by accident gets this death notebook that by writing down names of people he can kill them any way he wants. Raito begins using it extensively when he decided to kill prisoners who he deems undeserving of life. He called himself Killer, and gradually more people began to worship him, making him feel like god. After a while, to evade prosecution, he began killing non-prisoners...and then entirely innocent people...

Yes, the Noah's Ark idea of the world being so dirty and ugly that it has to be rebuilt is not a novel one. But the problem is, who determines that? I think the only person that knows whether the entity "world" is ugly is God, and I doubt anyone in the mundane world has the omnipotence of "God." Of course, people are entitled to their opinions but it becomes dangerous when one (this can be individual or a collective group) begin to thinks that his opinion constitutes the ultimate truth and everyone else must follow his through whatever means possible. Seriously? How do you know your opinion is any more true or right than mine? Plus, how can anyone claim to be so knowledgeable that he knows what the entity "society/world" is like exactly in his limited lifespan? I bet some of those people who literally traveled everywhere around the world and met more kinds of people than any of us had cannot even make a definite claim about whether the world is good or bad. In fact, I believe that the more you see or experience, the more you'll realize the complexity and multiplicity of life and "society."

Anyway, going back to Alejandro's argument. He believes that life should be a simple, uncomplicated connection to nature, without the influence of technology, extraneous material, etc. Okay, that's fine. But what is not fine is that he believe EVERYONE's life should be like that and the world is ugly because everyone's life is NOT like that (and therefore world is better off being "rebooted"). A beautiful vision suddenly turns into a ridiculous presumption. What if my belief is that our lives have become so much better off with all the technology...for example, technology exempts many of us from spending the majority of time working for subsistence and liberates many of us to do things that we like. Without technology, we will all have to work our ass off to just produce merely enough to eat, let alone pondering about whether or not the world is beautiful. So, is Alej's or my vision the "right" one? Who can tell? God can. But does God exist? No. So no one can.

Just like what I said to Alej, the only person you can change is yourself. You can advise, convince, or even force other people to do certain things, but you can't CHANGE them. If there is a particular style that one is so fond of, then make conscious efforts to change yourself and live that lifestyle. Mr. Rogoff had a huge impact on me. He once asked the class, how can you be both pro-life and pro-choice? The answer is: refrain from abortion yourself, but accept others' decision to do whatever they want with their body.

I think if someone neglects the effort to change on his own part, then it is easy for that person to fall into the vicious cycle of useless whining about others while not doing anything constructive himself. I don't remember if I had mentioned this before, but my utopia is called a world of "mutual understanding." The mutual understanding includes respecting others' opinions and cultural differences while holding onto your own beliefs. Leke and I once had a debate over something that I don't even remember, but I remember I said that America proves that at least some people can live harmoniously while have differing opinions about almost everything. Everyone need NOT to think the same to live together harmoniously. You don't have to lose your own identity to live in peace with a group of people who all hold the same belief that's a direct opposite of yours. Understanding, sympathy, and compassion--these are all we need to live peaceably in this world. After all, we're all citizens of the Earth.