Abstract
Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri published a worldwide bestseller with their book Empire, which was soon called the bible of the anti-globalization movement. Empire not only refreshes the neo-Marxist tradition in international relations theory but also includes additional theoretical approaches. These theoretical prerequisites and the style of writing make it a challenging book. Therefore this chapter aims to open a door to this book by taking a look at the movie Fight Club. Against a background of dialogues and scenes from the movie, insights into some ideas from Empire and multitude theory are given in this chapter. The course of the movie Fight Club—unfreedom, release through violence, and how violence creates unfreedom of the individual again—reflects the problems and dangers of modern subjectivity Hardt and Negri aim to make us aware of.
I see all this potential. And I see it squandered.
Goddamn it, an entire generation pumping gas.
Waiting tables. […] Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes.
Working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.
[…] Our great depression is our lives. […]”.
Tyler Durden’s speech at the Fight Club (FC 01:07:23)
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Notes
- 1.
Empire written in italic is referring to the book Empire by Hardt and Negri. Empire theory or Empire as the theoretical concept is not in italic.
- 2.
For a list of Cynthia Weber’s articles on “openDemocracy,” see URL https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/cynthia-weber, last access 06.11.2017.
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Meditz, M., Hamenstädt, U. (2019). Empire, Multitude, and the Fight Club. In: Hamenstädt, U. (eds) The Interplay Between Political Theory and Movies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90731-4_15
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