Soob

The concept of breaking oneself down to ones base and then rebuilding is not a particularly new or groundbreaking concept. It's been and is being practiced by many who've overcome addiction. Hit rock bottom, have an epiphany and then build up from there. It's also the practice of the American military to shatter the outer shell of "self" and then present an environment in which the recruit rebuilds in a controlled fashion conducive to the command and control nature of military life. Humpty Dumpty is, in some cases, put back together again. Never the less, I found this to be both very well written and very well thought out.

I actually found this via Glen Anderson:

A snippet of The Fight Club Philosophy:

The War on Drugs can never be won. Hip hop has regressed into paltry, repetitive spoken word over monotonous bass beats. Epic Movie was the nation’s top grossing film last week and America’s Funniest Home Videos is still on the air. This nation, as has the media-saturated contemporary world, has accepted base distraction with open arms. We delude ourselves willingly to avoid having to deal with our own issues. And when we choose to finally face them, we too often half-ass it, preferring to not actually fix anything and just distract ourselves with trifling entertainment and supposed “self-improvement.”

“Only after disaster can we be resurrected,” writes Palahniuk.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of bestsellers “Blink” and “The Tipping Point,” recently defended Enron in an article for The New Yorker. His argument was inspired by the idea that the warning signs for the company’s unethical practices were right in front of an audience enamored with Enron’s surprising growth. All it took was Jon Weil of the Wall Street Journal, looking at reports accessible to anyone interested, to break the story and expose Enron’s crimes. The same pattern exists with the individual. To improve oneself, it doesn’t take a self-help book, counseling, structure or distracting externalities. A dedicated, consistent approach to self-awareness and, accordingly, self-deconstruction are the answers.

Written by (at the time) and reflective of an undergraduate but simply blur your vision a bit and I think it fits the "real world" beyond college quite well. Give it a read.