Patrick Bateman and Hating Big Brother
I have to admit, I really don’t do a whole lot of online interactions anymore outside of public platforms like Twitter. So naturally I found out along with the rest of the world that apparently American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman has become somewhat of a cultural icon due to the number of meme possibilities, or at the least someone that younger people identify with.
However, this has generated a lot of confusion, if not outright disturbance of older generations who were alive when the film was released 23 years ago. Why does anyone look at a psychopathic serial killer as someone to identify with or admire?
Since this Substack is centered around the TV show Firefly (released around the same time as American Psycho) it’s worth comparing Bateman to Mal Reynolds, because there’s not much they have in common.
Reynolds is a nonconformist who, after fighting a losing war of independence, goes off on a spaceship to pursue freedom in space. Though jaded by his war experiences, he’s a leader and loyal to his crew. He has a code and sticks with it.
More specifically, Reynolds lost a war, but he didn’t submit in spirit to the galactic government or stop caring about what mattered to him, namely people and freedom.
In contrast, Bateman is a conformist to a T. Everything he does is to create an image, an ideal - well, everything that is seen by others.
The best way to describe Bateman is as the model citizen from 1984, but who privately hates Big Brother and would hack him to death if he got the chance. Not out of some lofty principles or out a moral resistance to tyranny. He’d kill Big Brother because, well, do you like Huey Lewis?
Bateman complies to fit in and move up the socio-economic ladder of 1980s Wall Street yuppie culture, but he’s not delusional about what he’s doing it for. He knows everything he does is fake and insincere. At the beginning of the film, he even admits “I simply do not exist.”
The best way to describe Bateman is as the model citizen from 1984, but who privately hates Big Brother and would hack him to death if he got the chance. Not out of some lofty principles or out a moral resistance to tyranny. He’d kill Big Brother because, well, do you like Huey Lewis?
A while back I wrote about how not caring is how you express loyalty or submission to the Current Regime. But to be a Regime citizen and get all the perks that come with it, you have not care about certain things and absolutely care about others.
Bateman is an aspiring Regime citizen who doesn’t care about anything, but also hates every Current Thing he has to say and pretend to believe. He’s a successful broker, he has a nice fancy penthouse, and he’s engaged to a beautiful young woman. On paper, he has it all. But whereas Reynolds pursues authenticity and self-autonomy to the point where he’s always running low on fuel just to fly, Bateman’s wealth and success comes at the price of surrendering every last vestige of his genuine self.
There’s also another aspect of Bateman worth considering. He doesn’t really care about anything. What would a man like Bateman die to protect? Put differently, what does he care about that someone could threaten to take away from him?
In that sense, it’s easy to see why young people would find him appealing in that way. He’s not only successful at navigating the Current Regime of his time, but he doesn’t care about anything that it is destroying. It has no power over him.
It’s a form of not caring as a means of rebelling against an unseen, intangible sense of authoritarianism.
But whereas Reynolds pursues authenticity and self-autonomy to the point where he’s always running low on fuel just to fly, Bateman’s wealth and success comes at the price of surrendering every last vestige of his genuine self.
To reiterate, to be a good Regime citizen you have to do two things
Not care about what is being destroyed
Openly declare your concern for what is being created or held up the Current Thing.
Bateman does both without also engaging in self-deceit about why he does what he does.
Many people, I presume, swear allegiance to the Current Thing and engage in massive self-deceit to convince themselves they really do believe what they say. Like Winston in 1984, they convince themselves that they really do love Big Brother.
A lot of people recite the slogans and say the pledges and affirm the Current Thing as a means of survival of one kind or another (typically social and financial). But to quote a Few Good Men, “deep down in places they don’t talk about at parties” they hate every ounce of it. And they can’t stand those around them who do the same, but either love it or can’t come to terms with why they do it.
On some level, these people appreciate that about Bateman. He’s played the game well, but hates it and those that either seems to enjoy it or live in a state of delusion.
That’s speaks to the degree to which Big Brother seeks control. It’s not enough to comply in word and deed. You have to accept the Current Thing into your heart as your lord and savior in order to be a true Regime citizen.
Now, let’s be very clear here. Bateman is a sadistic monster who is driven by envy, jealousy, and resentment. But one of the reasons he catches on compared to other fictional serial killers like Norman Bates or Hannibal Lector, is that his existence is a reflection of his times. His social interactions and entire persona to anyone and everyone is fake and insincere, because that’s what the culture demands if you want to succeed.
Perhaps the question should be less “why is Patrick Bateman catching on?” and more “could someone like Patrick Bateman thrive and succeed in our current era - and yet hate it nonetheless?”
Maybe that’s a reflection of the environment as much as the man.