lives, from the state of nature. In the 1650’s when Hobbes wrote Leviathan, life was brutish and short if one didn’t give everything to an absolute ruler. In the 1990’s when Palahniuk wrote Fight Club, life was long and boring if one didn’t fight back against the complacency all around. The state of nature had changed; the need for a savior from it was still apparent.
There is more to the state of nature than nature to Hobbes: there are shortcomings of man. It is man’s fault that his life would be awful within a state of nature. Julie Cooper claims that
Men are liable to attack “for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other signe of undervalue, either direct in their Persons, or by reflexion in their Kindred, their Friends, their Nation, their Profession, or their Name (L, Ch. 13).” (Cooper, 7)
In simpler terms, men within nature are quick to anger, swift to resort to senseless violence. But under the rule of the Leviathan, man’s natural urges are suppressed. Tyler’s rule is no exception. “After a night of fight club, everything in the real world gets the volume turned down. Nothing can piss you off. Your word is law, and if other people break the law or question you, even that don’t bother you” (Palahniuk, 49).
The only real problem with stating that Tyler Durden is Leviathan is his penchant for violence, in light of Hobbes’ cowardly aversion to bloodletting. Hobbes believed that the absolute sovereign would be an escape from violence and hardship by ruling without question; Tyler embraces violence as a way to help those in his care cope with their meaningless lives. Mr. Durden appears to be more revolutionary than Hobbes would care for. But Marx would love Tyler.
Tyler as Dictator of the Proletariat
To be blunt, Karl Marx was an antagonist of the world to which he belonged. He was extremely critical of what he saw as oppression on the part of the masters of industry. So in the 1840’s, he (with the help of a man named Engels) wrote a pamphlet designed to stir the working class to violent action, to revolt against their capitalist masters and take the means of production as their own. This pamphlet was titled The Communist Manifesto. Essentially a piece of propaganda in the same vein as Common Sense, the Manifesto was meant to be the match that set fire to the whole capitalist system. History shows that Marx never lived to see his revolution, that capitalism still stands, and communism seems to be dwindling.
First and foremost, Marx outlined that the aims of the communists were not the aims of any one party or faction; he believed that communists should work in the name of the proletariat as a whole. They are to work for the betterment of all workers. “They [the communists] have no interest separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole” (Marx, 67). As a whole…this phrase invokes a sense of community. And it should; communism is derived from the same root as community. So Marx’s goal for his communists was to promote the interests of the group as a whole, as a community, without any regard for their individual preferences.
Tyler very much likes the idea that the aims of the group supersede the interests of the individual, that for the world to function as it is supposed to, the one must lay down for the many. “Only in death will we have our own names since only in death are we no longer part of the effort” (Palahniuk, 178). A man was shot while on homework assignment for Project Mayhem. He died for the group, for the cause, for the community. His name is Robert Paulson.
Community is the aim of communists. To hold in their hands the fruits of their labors and the means of their production is their aim. Tyler embraces this as well. In the film, there is a scene in which members of Project Mayhem are seen tending a garden outside the house they all share while Tyler screams at them from a megaphone these words: “We are all the all seeing, all dancing crap of the world. We are all part of the same compost heap” (Fincher). Tyler is merely echoing Marx’s own claim of equality within workers.
However, this sense of community is not the only aim of communists. As has been stated, Marx wished for the workers to rise, to overthrow their capitalist masters, to take what was rightfully theirs by force. He ends his manifesto with this
The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can only be attained by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! (Marx, 86)
A battle cry and a call to arms. Would a man who routinely exchanges fists with others in an arena not also issue something to that effect? Tyler does, but in a more open way than Marx. Him and his men kidnap the chief of police, drag him into a public bathroom, and threaten to remove his testicles. Why? “The people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals; we haul your trash; we connect your calls; we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us” (Fincher, film).
Marx describes a violent upheaval in which the working class destroy the institutions that oppress it; Tyler destroys property. Marx states that communists strive for the betterment of the group at the cost of one’s own liberty; Tyler takes away names, not allowing individuals to exist until death removes them from Project Mayhem. Marx writes; Tyler lives. Where Marx and others don’t, Tyler does. Tyler is the living embodiment of Marx’s writing, but he is so much more than Marx could have hoped for. He is above what Marx could have hoped for.
Tyler as Ubermench
One of the most prolific philosophers of the nineteenth century, Friedrich Nietzsche postulated on what humanity would be after religion. Without God, Nietzsche feared the encroaching nihilism, this all encompassing nothingness, that seemed to exist just under the surface of the universe. God had kept it at bay, but in a world where God was dead, murdered at the hands of man, what could save humanity from oblivion? Nietzsche’s Ubermench could.
God is dead; and he will remain dead for we have killed Him. Nietzsche famously (or infamously) wrote these words in his book The Joyful Science. “If there is no God, there is no divine law, and thus no sinning against it” (Graham, 31). Nietzsche believed this, believed that God was unnecessary. On this, he and Tyler would have agreed. In the film, Tyler echoed what Nietzsche was saying with these words
Listen to me, you have to consider the possibility that God does not like you, never wanted you, in all probability He hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. We don’t need him. Fuck damnation, man, fuck redemption. We are God’s unwanted children? So be it! (Fincher, film)
It isn’t hard to see Nietzsche lurking in Tyler’s eyes as he explains this.
Nietzsche dislikes God; that much is clear. This dislike leads him to believe that what is best for man is inherent in man, that a will to power exists in humanity that is capable of causing humanity to be more than it is. This will to power is an intricate concept that Nietzsche develops over several works. But, according to Fitz, there are five ways in which it comes out in man: “1) a drive to become independent…2) a struggle to overcome a stage of nihilism and seek truth, 3) and impetus to give free reign to an unencumbered creative expression, 4) a desire for rank and power over others, and 5) the love of life as it is” (Fitz, 2). Fitz also claims that humans who achieve mastery over this will to power, have the potential to become Ubermench (Fitz, 1).
What is this Ubermench? Translated from the German, it literally means “over man”. The definition provided within the Graham text is in Nietzsche’s own words and quite long. But the main point to that definition is this: “a man to whom nothing is forbidden” (Graham, 32). Couple those words with the second point provided by Fitz (struggle to overcome a stage of nihilism and seek truth), and one can envision an individual unconstrained by social norms and unafraid to uncover the truth, whatever it may be. The Ubermench is above his fellow man because of his will to power.
Tyler claims “we’re the middle children of history, no purpose no place. We have no great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual
war; our great depression is our lives” (Fincher, film). He walks around a dingy basement, preaching to a “generation pumping gas, waiting tables, slaves in white collars” (Fincher, film). Tyler uses fight club to combat nihilism. Tyler uses fight club to share the truth that he knows with others. Tyler’s will to power comes out in fight club. Tyler proves that he is the Ubermench in fight club.
Nietzsche believes that the Ubermench is inevitable, that he will arise out of humanity at some point in history in response to the growing nihilism. The Ubermench is man’s way of combating this nothing. The climax of the film accentuates this point. Tyler is in a hotel room with the other protagonist (spoiler alert: Tyler and this character are the same person). When this other character realizes that he and Tyler are one, Tyler explains that the other character “was looking for a way to change your life; you could not do this on your own. All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me” (Fincher, film). The character, representing humanity, understands that without this other, without this Ubermench his life would never have changed.
Tyler is not afraid to get his