The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. Feel free, however, to post videos of your fights on YouTube for the world to see.

Congratulations to the Northwest Area High School students who allegedly decided to create a “fight club,” then videotape the battles and put them on the Web, thus perpetuating the stereotype of Luzerne County’s smallest, most rural district as a bunch of country yokels with the common sense of cows.

It’s a false stereotype, of course, as I can attest from visits and interviews. Northwest has plenty of sharp students and successful alumni, and I’m not just saying that because two nieces are graduates.

But a pack of knuckle draggers apparently decided the world should know Northwest for something a little more low-brow. State police and Superintendent Nancy Tkatch both said students, while in school, organized gatherings held in a field off school property, where two would brawl while spectators circled and cheered. There were reportedly two such gatherings, one Jan 25 with about 18 students, another Jan. 27 with 25 students.

In this way they were aping – and I use the word deliberately – the movie “Fight Club.”

For those not tuned to pop culture, “Fight Club” was a 1999 release (based on a Chuck Palahniuk novel) starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt as a duo who meet by chance and create a club that gathers in a bar basement so members can take turns beating each other into a bloody, toothless pulp. “The first rule of fight club,” Pitt says, “is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about fight club!”

Presumably, the Northwest students didn’t talk about it; they just posted it online. Which may be moronic, but doesn’t violate any of the movie’s eight rules for a fight club. Of course, that’s probably because the movie debuted six years before YouTube.

Gives district a black eye

Why a fight club? The movie characters speak of letting go, of feeling pain to feel life, of consumerism that emasculates modern man. As Pitt put it: “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy (stuff) … We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off. “

A “psychological analysis” of the book and movie on the Web dubs Pitt’s character a nihilist – one who believes existing institutions must be destroyed to make way for a more worthy world. It says the plot focuses on existentialism, “the philosophy that an individual must make meaning from a chaotic and empty universe,” usually by suffering.

Other articles on the psychology of fighting talk of “confidence” and “focus,” or about an addictive response to dopamine released in the brain during a fight, or just about a violent society – sports, movies, video games – that inevitably encourages violence.

But if events did unfold as police report, there is a simpler issue those involved should consider.

Doubtless some of these kids figured they were hurting no one but themselves. They are wrong. Their stupidity stains the district, and they owe their classmates and teachers an apology.

Some would argue we should not be surprised that male teens at their testosterone peak choose to glory in violence for the world to watch.

I would argue the day we stop being surprised is the day we stop being a civilization.

About the Author

Mark Guydish covers education for the Times Leader. Reach him at (570) 970-7161 or mguydish@timesleader.com.

A West Hazleton native, I worked as a service technician repairing electronic mailing and shipping systems, a bike shop owner and an Emergency Medical Technician (among other jobs) before landing a reporter job at the Times Leader Hazleton Bureau in 1995. I started by covering primarily politics in Hazleton City and outlying municipalities, eventually became "social issues" team leader in the Wilkes-Barre office with the accent on education, and headed the Hazleton Bureau for a spell before returning to full-time reporting, my preferred position. I'm an avid cyclist and rode across the country in 1990, a trip of more than 5,000 miles from New Jersey to Seattle and down the coast to San Francisco. Years in the Boy Scouts made me a life long backpacker and camper, and I've yet to find a better way to enjoy the quiet lure of winter snow than cross country skiing.

Mark also writes a regular blog for timesleader.com.

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