A Martial Artist's View Of The Film: "Fight Club"
“Fight Club” is the kind of film that can make you squirm, belly laugh, and think, “That’s profound!” in the space of a few minutes. Starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, this is, on a superficial level, a flick about underground boxing, or if you prefer, brawling clubs. No money changes hands, no betting occurs, and the pugilists’ only compensation is the thrill they get from kicking butts. A cult develops that externalizes violence to the surrounding society, targeting various “establishment” symbols, such as TV and electronics stores, public officials, and office buildings. Just when you think, “Now, they’ve gone too far,” the plot twists to make you question nearly everything you’ve seen to that point. The real and unreal start to unravel, and you wonder if you’ve been played for a chump. Here are a few of the points that I draw from this movie that are of special interest to the martial artist: (1) You can prevail if you decide to take a battle, a disagreement, or a cause to the extreme. Even certified tough guys, including the mobsters you see in the film, can be intimidated and will back down if they believe their adversaries are crazy enough to do anything. (2) Men are seeking gender clarity and reaffirmation of their core instincts. The forced feminization of males during the past several decades has created role confusion and dissatisfaction among males as well as females. “Fighting,” however you construe this term, provides a forum for men to be tested and to learn who they are on a deep, primitive level. (3) Men were not minted for the purpose of wearing neckties and performing nerdy roles inside of sterile office buildings. Our most natural inclination is to be hunters, not custodians. (4) Women will tolerate a great deal from men who are in touch with their basic instincts, and they’ll relentlessly toy with or destroy those who aren’t. (5) To borrow a phase from General Stonewall Jackson: “One courageous man makes a majority.” You might like this movie simply because of its unpredictability. I like it because its characters are onto something. Take the exchange between Pitt and Norton on the plane, where Norton hands Pitt an obscure compliment that Pitt decodes on the spot, and then Pitt incisively asks: “How’s that working out for you?” “What?” Norton responds, puzzled. “Cleverness. Is that working for you?” With this brief exchange, Pitt implies, “You’re a wimp.” Cleverness, indirection, and cute word play don’t make you a man, so cut the crap and don’t fool yourself. Men, whether they realize it or not, are attracted to the martial arts partly because modern society provides few opportunities to be completely nonverbal, to escape the endless symbolism and etiquette that informs professional and personal lives. With a fist headed toward your teeth, there’s no time to talk; only to act. Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations from Santa Monica to South Africa. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com. For information about coaching, consulting, training, books, videos and audios, please go to: http://www.customersatisfaction.com |
Other Betting Exchange Articles
Do You Want to Beat the Slots? Read These Important Facts Every day I get email from "experts" that want to sell me their system describing how I too can beat the slots. Some even suggest that I could easily make $1,000 per day. Well, I would love to make $1,000 per day playing the slots, but they are all scams to sell you worthless information. Sure, you "could" easily make $1,000 per day, but … yo ...Listening to Your Heart! Trying to predict stock price movements is necessary, of course. After all, when stock prices fall, the cost of borrowing and of issuing new equity can rise, and falling stock prices can both undercut the confidence of employees and customers and handicap mergers. Unfortunately, however, most of these predictions are no more than rough guesses, ...Securing Risk-free Arbitrages on Betting Exchanges Most people have now become familiar with the concept of arbitrages, and the opportunities which betting exchanges create in order to secure an arbitrage.As a very brief explanation to those who may be unfamiliar to the term, an arbitrage is the practice of taking advantage of a state of imbalance between two or more markets. A combinatio ...Poker Versions - 5 Card Draw PLAYERS: 3 to 6 is ideal.CARDS: Five cards, all down. BETTING: Two rounds plus ante; betting tends to be relatively low.WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Keep a close eye on how many cards each player draws from the deck.WHAT WINS: Usually a high pair or better. Five-card draw, or draw poker, is one of the oldest poker games, and it is ...Films - Black Rain Nick, played by Michael Douglas, is a New York City cop riding his motorcycle on his way to work. He meets his police partner Charlie, played by Andy Garcia, at the station. They both been given the task by their superior to escort a Japanese assassin named Sato, played by Yusaku Matsuda, back to Osaka, Japan.The flight is smooth and pe ...Starting an E-Commerce Business - Consider which Keywords you will Use How many web sites and web pages exist today? This great question can only be answered by stating an approximate number at a particular time of a given day. Why is this? Because each second of each day brings thousands upon thousands of new web sites and with those web sites brings multiple thousands of new web pages.This startling fact ...An Iranian Foreign Film Fails To Promote Real Understanding Children of Heaven is an Iranian movie with subtitles about a boy who accidentally loses his sister’s worn out shoes after being sent to get them repaired, and must share his own worn out sneakers with her in a sort of relay while each attends school at different times during the day.He bargains with his sister not to tell his fathe ...Sports Handicapping Explained If you bet on sports, or perhaps even if you don’t, you most likely know what a sports handicapping service is. Most people know that they give out sports picks, but what is happing behind the scenes? Are all sports handicapping services the same? Do they really win often? What is inside information? This article will explain the sports hand ...Calling China's Taiwan Bluff Politics not economics is usually the first concern for most investors considering investing in Taiwan. For the next couple of years, both lead to a window of opportunity for investors with nerve and foresight.There is little doubt that for the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan is a bone in their throat - a constant irrita ...3 Way Linking - The New Popularity Building Strategy For Your Website There has been a lot of talk over the past few months, even more so with the latest Google update, about the value of linking. What types of links are better, which types are still seen as value added to a website. Well if the truth be told, the only people who can tell us are not saying anything. I am speaking of the engineers at Google and the ...Video Poker - How To Calculate Optimal Strategy Video Poker is one of the most popular slot versions of playing poker. In video poker you are playing against the machine, not other players, like in traditional poker. Your goal in this game is to get the highest ranking five card hand possible.How to playFirst you place a bet and receive five cards. Then you decide ...Texas Holdem Rules Texas Holdem poker does not adhere to any universal or standard set of rules. But nonetheless, here are some rules that one of the most reliable sources for Texas Holdem Game Rules prescribes. This group meets mainly to update and elaborate the rules for poker.Some of the general rules go as follows: Games in the United States should use ...Be a Sharp Gambler The gambling world is full of people who just throw down hard earned money without thinking about what they are doing. Are you one of those people who will just go with the flow? If so, you are most likely a losing gambler or you are not winning as much money as you could be. There are three main factors that make up every successful gambler ...Soccer Drills - How To Improve Soccer Passing Skills Passing and receiving a soccer ball is more than just kicking it back and forth. These are soccer skills that involve communication, organization, and vision. There are many simple, yet effective soccer drills ou can use to easily improve passing and receiving skills.The goal is to effectively work on passing technique and combine this wi ...A Regular NBA Season After a break in the summer, basketball-training camps begin in October. During this time, coaches decide which players to add to the twelve person active roster. Following training camp there is a series of preseason exhibition games. The regular season for the NBA starts in the first week of November.Over the course of a regular season, ...Forex Review Center - Forex Day Trading, Around the Clock Trading The currency market is the only true 24-hour market in the world. With the largest daily trading volume and three major trading centers, there is plenty of liquidity and news flow around the clock. Day traders rely on intraday volatility to produce quick and large market movements. Volatility equals big profits or big losses.Personal ...The New Age Criminal This seemingly faceless and non-violent from of criminal activity has hit home for many of us in the community in recent months with the child pornography scandal. Many people have been taken into custody and many computers confiscated. Regardless of how people try and justify things, there is no excuse for either possessing images or participat ...Gambling Heroes Gambling is one amongst the most eminent sources of entertainment today. It is also the cause of livelihood for many people. Gambling is all about wagering money usually to acquire more wealth or even things of material significance. Nowadays the enticement of gambling is at a surge. This is why apart from ordinary people it is commonplace to se ...What are Your Options Regarding Forex Options Brokers? Forex option brokers can generally be divided into two separate categories: forex brokers who offer online forex option trading platforms and forex brokers who only broker forex option trading via telephone trades placed through a dealing/brokerage desk. A few forex option brokers offer both online forex option trading as well a dealing/brokera ...John Wayne - A Modern Legend Known as "The Duke", John Wayne made his first appearance in this world on May 26, 1907. His parents, Clyde Leonard and Mary Alberta Brown Morrison, named their first-born child Marion Robert. When his younger brother was born in 1911, his parents decided to name him Robert. Thus, they changed Marion's middle name to Michael.The Morris ...Baseball Trade Review: Carlos Beltran Deal The Carlos Beltran sweepstakes are over and the Houston Astros are the winners. After spending the offseason recruiting Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, the Astros have found themselves mired back in the pack of a tough NL Central division race.Beltran brings a flashy glove to center field and some excitement and run production to the top ...Golf Betting Basics The key to golf betting is differentiating the two main wagering options, so we're here to serve as your gambling caddy and give you helpful tips on how to understand PGA golf odds. With golf, you can either bet on an individual to win a tournament or take part in "Matchup Betting" which involves wagering on artificially created golf matchups se ...Online Poker Forums: Another Tool to Improve Your Game Almost any activity you can think of has an online forum dedicated solely for the discussion and exchange of information on that particular topic. Forums have been around in the form the dial-up bulletin boards and internet newsgroups that were popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The internet forum has since evolved into one of the most used tools t ...Casino Games - Blackjack Whether you’re new to casino gaming or a casino veteran, blackjack is one of the simplest and most fun card games casinos have to offer. The objective in blackjack is to beat the dealer by getting a hand as close to 21 as possible without going over. To play casino blackjack, you need only a basic understanding of the rules and a desire to have ...Payment Methods Explained for Online Casinos Depositing funds into your online casino account is one of the most important aspects of playing at an online casino. With so many different options out there, how do you know which one is best? And which method is most suitable for you? This article will review each method in turn so that next time you deposit at an online casino you will be ch ...Forgiveness from God: Three Understandings of the Atonement What was God doing on the cross? The question is more than a good book title (authored by evangelical Alister E. McGrath). It constitutes a search for understanding of one of the crucial events of human history, perhaps the crucial event. The entire New Testament focuses on the death, burial, and resurrection, events leading up to and flowing fr ...Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy - Poker Tournament Betting Basics Welcome to the third in my Texas Holdem Strategy Series, focusing on no limit Texas Holdem poker tournament play and associated strategies. In this article, we’ll build upon the poker tournament strategy fundamentals from last time, with some important poker betting strategy basics.Winning at Texas Holdem poker doesn't have to be a gambl ...A Bad Night in Vegas: A Boxing Story His name was Javier Ayala and he was from Los Angeles by way of Tijuana. He had once gone ten rounds with the great Roberto Duran in 1973 in Los Angeles and also went the distance with Leroy Haley. But on this night at the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas, his main event opponent was Bruce Finch whose claim to fame would be that after his 3rd round T ...Using Arbitrage Trading to Make Money From Home In today’s world anymore you need to work two jobs. You need a part time job, and a full time job. The problem with this though is that it doesn’t allow you to have much time to do the things we should really be doing in life. Spending time with our kids, taking family vacations, buying a new home or car, and so much more. If you are anything li ...New Legislation Seeks to Halt Internet Wagering in the U.S. President Bush has signed into law new legislation seeking to halt online gambling by making it illegal to transfer funds for the purposes of internet gaming. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act gives teeth to the administration’s censure of online gaming sites in the absence of an outright ban.What the Act Does ...Bring on the New TV Dramas The 2005-06 television season is just a few weeks old, but there are some clear winners and losers amongst the new shows, both in quality and ratings. I took a bullet for y’all and sat down to watch just about every new show to come down the pipe this fall, sorted through them, and came up with a list of winners that are worthy of your precious ...Viking Trekkies History weaves its influence into pop culture via many avenues ... One of the strangest is the Viking influence on Star Trek, especially The Next Generation.Ever since that series found the airwaves, I've often wondered if one or more of its writers were descended from peoples who endured raids from the North and then used this show to ex ...
|
