So there's a bit of a meme/post floating around various social media feeds where Fight Club is being held up as an example of Gen-X basically being ungrateful and ridiculous. The premise is that the protagonist of the story "goes insane" because his job is boring, and that such a response is unfathomable because he has a high income and job security.
And, like...
Pinches the bridge of her nose while exhaling
Look, the conflict that's being overlooked here in the current discussion is more or less the issue that's been eating at me for years, so I'm going to talk about it at least a little.
The issue the protagonist has in this story - and this is all but made boldfaced obvious if you watch it - isn't that he's bored. It's that he's hollow.
Yes, he has employment. Yes, he has money. Yes, he has a home. But the cost he's paying is literally everything else. The idea is that he has to squeeze himself into a tiny little box, play to expectations, and give up having anything resembling an identity, a community, or purpose. Instead, he's been conditioned to be a middle-manager constantly feeding the engine of corporate life.
And that's it.
He's not kinda tired of it, he's unfulfilled. And while the actions he takes in response are ill-advised, the underlying cause isn't any less valid a problem.
The main issue that's at play is that while he has access to stable income, a job, and housing - These are conditional. These are not rights, these are things he's been given under the pretense that he's not going to step out of line. He tries to replace meaning in his life with material objects he can purchase, because while he has money, he has no purpose. There comes a moment when the elation of 'success' fades and one understands that it was someone else's definition of success the whole time.
So now he's in this situation where he feels hollow and empty, without purpose, identity, or community. But to seek any of those things would be to put that financial security and job safety at risk.
You think - particularly back in the 90s - you could have that kind of employment and status while being queer?? Shit, even today, that's hard. There's a reason that once people transition they find themselves on a PIP, being told the quality of their work has suffered, and that people are uncomfortable around them.
Your purpose is made work. If you're home and you have free time, you should be thinking about work. If you have friends, they should be work friends. You want fulfillment? Go buy something. The fact that these endeavors don't actually provide satisfaction, purpose, or comfort is the point. The protagonist in this movie snaps because he's built his whole identity around the illusion of success and fulfillment provided by a hypercapitalistic system and never questioned that - Seeing the hollowness it provided him is more than enough to break him.
And that's the whole point. You either play by the rules, or you get marginalized to hell and back.
It wasn't that he was bored, it was that he was willingly drinking poison, and the way out felt like slitting his own throat.
Addendum: I feel like I have to at least tangentially address the fact that this movie was also hijacked by people trying to ply it as an endorsement of toxic masculinity, which is another misread in my opinion. The protagonist's response to this conflict isn't an advisable, or even functional, one. That's made clear by the narrative, but there are still chuds who thought the message was ultimately, "Real men go out and punch each other".
