The M4+r1x

Reply to gogreen18 (Laci Green) on: Unlock Your Mind (Take the Red Pill)







The Matrix could very well be indicative of the effects of religion (or of no religion) on the human psyche as you said, but it also seems pertinent to put it in a more general sense, to elaborate the necessity to seriously consider the philosophy contained therein. For instance, rather than having the Matrix represent religion or no religion, put it instead as a representation of modern consumerist society, the result of industrialism. Say that perhaps humans created this Matrix, began manufacturing reality with the rise of factories and mass importation of resources.

Well, that would explain the barren wasteland of the 'real world' in The Matrix; a result of our destruction of the planet in the process of making or subscribing to this false reality to sedate our conscience (but of course we see the Earth as beautiful and wonderful, neglecting the everyday fact that we are destroying it behind the scenes).

"You've been living in a dream world, Neo" Morpheus says, violently shaking Neo out of his perceptions of the real world. Perhaps the Matrix is a statement on our societal and cultural values changing in a way that creates a false world that perhaps we created to put our minds at ease. "What is real? How do you define real?" he says, and we can take these questions and put them in a societal context, addressing a worldwide problem: What is contentment? How do you define contentment? Are we geared towards contentment in this society? Are we geared towards truth, or do we define contentment as a plausible truth, malleable and useful insofar as it gives us a peace of mind?

Maybe religion is that plausible truth. Maybe it's the lack of religion that puts a mind at ease, or maybe it's all contained in the type of culture we've evolved; making money to spend money, freedom epitomized in 'free' consumerism, pretty gears in a system where purpose is given freely if only you adhere to the rules and perform your function like individual chunks of code in a program.

We as humans have been integrated into a huge system that arguably rules (if not exists as) our culture and society. We work to make money. but we really work because the work needs to get done to keep the system in place. We are motivated by money, because money can give us a little freedom and a little fun for our free time. However, this is not so much serving ourselves as it is a larger system. We really need the money to keep the system in place, to buy the products that keep the system of society and economics running, but all of this is relatively under the surface, covered up by the illusion of satisfaction and personal 'contentment'. It's like a program running in the background that has the appearance of a fulfilling life, but is really rather self-serving, yet still gives us the illusion of a complete existence free of spiritual or existential depravity or incompleteness.

The irony of it is, everyone feels that depravity, masked or not. The system was created out of that depravity, that longing for purpose that we felt lost to, and thus we began manufacturing it. The machines that wage war with us in the 'real world' that so many are oblivious to (or are simply not 'ready' to see) is in fact, that very depravity. We created a false world to escape from that war, that pressure, that lack of real purpose (hence the machines representing a lack of full life) and it is up to those who know what's going on to give out the red pill and wage this war.

Where there are different views on what exactly the Matrix can represent to modern culture, be it the haze of religion, the environmental manifestation of material atheism, or the pretty blinds of complacency as a result of our modern industrialized society/culture, one point can be derived from the general philosophy: we need to wake up. We need to discontent ourselves with our prejudices and judgements and label them as both inadequate and destructive. It is too presumptuous to assume we have found the truth in any respect, because clearly the disparate truths are creating an elaborate falsehood that is muting our progression of mind.

There is a larger conflict behind the pixels, equations balancing and unblancing, programs destroying and creating, and as a whole we are too absorbed in what we want to see or what we tell ourselves we see to realize that the quality of life is being drained in our collective ingorance.

Regardless of what the Matrix really is, or what 'reality' really is, it's time to start handing out the red pill and find out, as a collective effort.

Maybe some new messiah will come and be 'the one' to end the war, but he/she won't be magically taken from the matrix. It would be up to the ones who've already taken the red pill to uncover it. It could be anyone. It could be everyone.