Do you know about Tyler Durden?

NOTE: This post deals with the movie "Fight Club". If you have not seen this movie, please see it. Debt Daddy gives it two enthusiastic thumbs up. If, like a friend of mine, you didn't see this film because you don't like movies about fighting, let me fill you in - Fight Club is about a whole lot more than fighting. In fact, IMHO, fighting is probably the least important part of the flick.


"Do you know about Tyler Durden?"

Meat Loaf says this line to Edward Norton in the movie, "Fight Club". Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt (Brad Pitt, organizer of the Make it Right foundation, rebuilding the lower 9th ward in New Orleans - http://www.makeitrightnola.org/ - please donate), is a larger than life, in your face character who takes the rules and constructs of society and turns them upside down to suit his needs and desires. It is Tyler Durden who, with the help of Edward Norton's character, starts Fight Club and, throughout the film, brings a large network of people around to his way of thinking. He does this by yanking them out of their comfort zone, shaking them out of their complacency and making them realize that you are not defined by your job, or your condo, or your IKEA living room set.

Tyler Durden recreates the world in his own image. When Debt Daddy grows up, he wants to be Tyler Durden.

When I first considered blogging about "Fight Club", my emphasis was going to be on how Tyler and his group dealt with the outside world. One of the best lines in the movie is where Tyler says to the Police Commissioner (who is at that moment, being held down on a bathroom floor with a knife pressed up against his family jewels - always a motivation to listen), "Look, 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."

To me, that pretty much sums up the current financial situation in our country. The Richies keep going after the Average Joe, taking his money, outsourcing his job to India, foreclosing on his house - all the while blind to the fact that Joe and the rest of the Average world keep the trains running on time. Now, with the housing market, GDP and consumer confidence in a tailspin, I think they might finally be starting to realize that yes - if you push us too far, it will cause those on the top to suffer as well. Indeed, best not to "fuck with us".

So, that was going to be the gist of this entry. But then I started thinking about Tyler Durden himself. Throughout this film, Tyler challenges our basic assumptions about our daily lives and the world in which we live. Not simply, "Are we winning in the game of Life?" which we regularly ask ourselves, but instead, "What does winning this particular game mean? Who made up the rules to this game? Why do we follow them? Is this really the game we want to be playing, in the way we're playing it?"

Tyler says, "The things you own end up owning you." If you're still paying 19% interest on that solar powered hot dog rotisserie and bun warmer that you just had to have, you know this is true.

Tyler says, "Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions." Why? See the above quote.

Tyler says, "You have to know the answer to this question! If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?" Socrates once said, "the unexamined life is not worth living", yet most of us think of this self examination in much the same way that we might think about a colonoscopy - a big pain in the ass is the main thought. But, like a colonoscopy, we're also secretly afraid of what we might find. Fear aside, it's worth thinking about.

And here's a quote attributed to Tyler that I honestly don't remember ever hearing in the movie, but it spoke to me:

"Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler. "

Do you know about Tyler Durden?

Making it Right

Brad Pitt and I are building houses.

Man, that sounds so cool. Brad Pitt and I are hanging out together, swinging hammers, putting up some houses. I'm sure Angelina would be nearby as well, so really it would be Brad and Angelina and I, hanging together, doing the whole house thing. Of course, Brad's a busy guy, so he wouldn't be around all the time, so sometimes it would just be Angelina and I, hanging out together, playing house (Debt Daddy's mind wanders off into fantasy land, yanked quickly back to reality by the realization that his wife reads this blog).

Okay, okay, I embellish. We're not reallly hanging out together, Brangelina and I - but Brad Pitt is building houses, and I'm helping him out when I can. And so can you.

Y'all know about Hurricane Katrina and the way it wrecked people's lives all up and down the Gulf Coast. What you may not realize is that, due to the truly pathetic, incompetent and greedy nature of insurance companies and all levels of the government, there are still a huge amount of people in the Gulf Coast who have not been able to rebuild their homes. I'm not here to argue about the reasons for it - I honestly don't care about any weaselly excuse for raining down more shit on these people after all they went through. All I know is that the victims of Hurricane Katrina have been through enough, and they deserve a break.

Turns out Brad Pitt agrees with me. Here's a snippet from his site - http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

In December 2006, Brad Pitt convened a group of experts in New Orleans to brainstorm about building green affordable housing on a large scale to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Having spent time with community leaders and displaced residents determined to return home, Pitt realized that an opportunity existed to build houses that were not only stronger and healthier, but that had less impact on the environment.
Previously, Pitt sponsored an architecture competition organized by Global Green with the goal of generating ideas about how to rebuild sustainably. Several of those designs are currently under construction in the Lower 9th Ward and the project inspired him to expand his efforts.
After discussing the hurdles associated with rebuilding in a devastated area, the group determined that a large-scale redevelopment project focused on green affordable housing and incorporating innovative design was indeed possible.
The group settled on the goal of constructing 150 homes (one of the larger rebuilding projects in the city), with an emphasis on developing an affordable system that could be replicated.
To demonstrate replicability, Pitt determined to locate the project in the Lower 9th Ward, one of the most devastated areas of New Orleans, proving that safe homes could and should be rebuilt. Pitt hopes that this project would be a catalyst for recovery and redevelopment throughout the Lower 9th Ward and across the city of New Orleans.
Having listened to one former resident's plea to help "make this right," Pitt was inspired to name the project "Make It Right" (MIR).

As of this writing, 52 of the 150 proposed homes have been funded. That's pretty good, but it needs to be better. This neighborhood can be rebuilt, and the beauty of it is that it will be rebuilt as a green neighborhood, so not only will people have their homes back, but their homes will help all of us with their smaller carbon footprint. Seems only fair that, if someone's home is going to help all of us, that all of us should help get that home built, hmmm?

Debt Daddy doesn't usually ask for much - read my blog, laugh at my strange humor, comment every now and then and I'm generally a happy camper. However, in this post, I am asking - very strongly - that you donate to this project. One year after Katrina, I set up a website to raise money for Habitat for Humanity and their rebuilding efforts in the Gulf Coast. The response was underwhelming, due in part (I believe) to the fact that people thought the crisis was over down there. The flood waters had receded, people had moved out of the stadium...business as usual, right?

Wrong.

The crisis isn't over. It wasn't over a year ago, and it isn't now. And that's sad. Just a sad string of broken promises:

The government promised they would help. They didn't.

The insurance companies promised they would help. They didn't.

Now Brad Pitt has promised to help, and he's asking for help from us.

I intend to help him keep that promise. I'm gonna donate whatever I can, because I truly want to see New Orleans come back - better and stronger than ever.

I hope you'll join us. Check out the site, tell a friend, donate. Let's Make It Right.

http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

PS: I know, I know - I'm asking a bunch of debt reduction folks to give away money, and I'm sure a fair amount of people are reading this and saying, "Oh, it sounds good, but I just can't afford it right now." Well, not to get into a pissing contest or anything, but Debt Daddy is currently $673,057 in debt, and I'm kicking in. It doesn't have to be a lot. It can be five bucks. But let's all give something, okay? Thanks.