March 5, 2003

I think I'm learning to stand up for myself. The other day Mike was making fun of me and kept telling me I couldn't pass the IOCT. Back in the day, I'd usually just pout and feel bad, but this time I decided to argue back. It surprised him that I defended myself and he stopped. I have a friend who is "too nice" like me and it frustrates me to see him get trampled. It makes it worse from him being a guy because of all the rules concerning masculinity such as a tendency towards aggression.

I have to watch Fight Club for my Social Theory class. Besides being an entertaining movie, it makes a lot of statements and criticisms on society. There's the criticism on consumerism and the workplace. "You are not your job," "you are not your khakis." Those resonate with the white collar members of the American culture. Something that stuck me when I was watching it was that I realized that it depicted the point I was trying to make about war in a discussion with one of my friends. It's that a quick, decisive, low American casualty war might not be a good thing. Sterile words like friendly fire and collateral damage and the way the media displays (or doesn't display) death dull the pain of war and make it more of an acceptable option for those who do not fight. Americans are arrogant, and the fear they experience now after the terrorist attack of 9/11, is only a taste of what the majority of the world experiences. We are in for a shock if we expect all wars to be quick, decisive, and cheap. It's an unfortunate thing that people have to experience loss and fear in order to appreciate what they have.