남성태

...you do not talk about Fight Club.

Fight Club is movie that was released in 1999 starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. For a full plot summary, visit for example imdb.

It would be easy to discard the movie as a violent action movie with a schizofrenic main character aiming to create chaos and in a way it is...But there is so much more. The script, which is based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, describes how people get addicted and dependent to their material possesions.

This kind of social criticism certainly resonates with me back then and with quotes such as...

- You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

- It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

- The things you own end up owning you.

...The movie worked as an eye-opener. Until then gadgets and devices had had its place. After that I've changed my point of view a little. I have of course not gotten rid of all my belongings and I still buy things. But I don't bother that much any longer if things get broken or so and I prioritize other things in life. I much more like to spend my money on events than on things. An expression for that is for example my obsession for musicals and its more fun to experience an event at the arena than with a flat screen and a surround system even hough it might cost me more. This is also of course a lot of my money is spent on travel or at least that's what I like it to be spent on.

With this in mind it might sound a little weird that I own an apartment, a flatscreen, a laptop and that I went to IKEA last summer to buy furniture for about $ 4 000. But hey I'm only human.