The Social Matrix

Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself, to believe it.

The Matrix is the reality that has been pulled over your mind's eye; to blind you from the truth.

And the truth is… that The Matrix (the movie) isn’t "just" a movie… but symbolic of the real world.

There is more to reality than appears at first glance. Most people tend to perceive only the surface of reality-- content to exist in a myth of the consensus reality; rarely conceiving to look beneath. Analogous to judging a book by its cover.

In actuality, The Matrix is a profound metaphor illustrative of a reality construct that most are not aware of… are not ready, willing or able to acknowledge. The epitome of science fiction, it brilliantly presents relevant contemporary social commentary on the human condition; cleverly hiding revelation out in the open, in the form of a movie--- thus making the ideas within more acceptable and accessible to the general public. Thematically incorporating perennial spiritual truths from Christianity, Buddhism and Gnosticism, it aspires to inspire us... encouraging us to free our mind and liberate our soul.

The Matrix also functions as myth, so it is important to understand that this is not merely a fantasy, but a depiction of a latent subcultural recognition of the free man archetype that resides within Human nature.

A common mistake made by the common man is to regard and summarily devalue fiction as irrelevant frivolity.

However, dismissing this extraordinary & revolutionary movie as mere 'eye candy' and/ or childish diversion would be, in essence, completely missing the point of the story.

Which proves my point.

The point being that we are slaves; held captive by a general ignorance of our condition… of who and what we are... who and what we can be. I suppose those people aren't really to blame for their ignorance of their plight.

One of our greatest free thinkers, Thomas Paine, suggested that "a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right." The oppression has become so common-place that we accept it as normal; so that we usually don't consciously notice it. Our splinter in the mind is a perpetual and pervasive paradox... what we perceive and conceive contradict each other. But rather than seek reconciliation of such divergence, we instead typically devise rationalizations of these discrepancies for the sake of expediency.

Those who do not/ can not/ will not see beyond the facade of the entertainment aspect--- to recognize and appreciate the fundamental core message of this film-- and its practical and philosophical significance, are those who have been successfully indoctrinated and subjugated by the status quo of the Anti-Civilization which tells us that this is all that we are, and that there is nothing more to our experience than the mundane. Mainstream culture dictates, to us, the terms of our reality and expects us to comply, without question; further demonstrating the metaphor. Unfortunately, so many people readily trade their personal freedom for a false sense of security and stability by conceding to the whims of the Cultural Leviathan.

They know not what they do. Or are made not to care.

We sell our souls and sacrifice our identities for the sake of routine, regimentation and regulation. We abdicate responsibility for ourselves to the authority of another. We go along quietly and do as we're told and what is expected of us, in misguided attempts to keep the peace. But it is a peace without freedom.

As represented in the movie, we--- the public--- the individuals--- have basically been reduced to batteries, convenient power sources drained to sustain and maintain a cultural entity that has assumed a life of its own. Independent of, yet dependent on, us.

Social institutions condition the individual for obedient and complacent servitude to the social conformity machine…to keep our plodding and pedantic social system functioning. We become trapped in our own petty greed, ignorance, and vanity... on a path that ultimately leads to (or encourages) harm to us.

We did it before, we're doing it now, and we'll do it again. Until and unless the cycle is broken. Just like in the movie, there are also Agents in this reality... people and institutions who discourage us from going outside their proscribed and conscripted lines, who keep us confined within ourselves. And as in the movie, there are people--- like myself--- who refuse to tolerate such unjust rules. We are so busy trying to make a living that we forget to live… forget how to live. We accept it as normal, because it is the only way we have ever known.

I’m gonna take a stand and tell you that life doesn’t have to be the way it is. Just because it always has been does not mean that it always must be. Because we have forgotten ourselves, Humanity has inadvertently created its own prison… designed the means to its own end. Indeed, we have raced towards an apocalypse of our own creation. But Revelation--- and revolution--- is at hand. In our ignorant state/ condition, we continue to feed the machine that builds the cage that imprisons us--- unaware that we are servants to this great social mechanism. Unaware that the machine even exists; unaware that WE exist. Though there are some who may sense or suspect the truth. And even fewer brave souls who dare to seek it out. The mind does tend to have trouble letting go of its habitual expectations; the longer the exposure to these habits, the more difficult the release. We live what we learn. And what we are predominately, unwittingly and historically learning and teaching in this culture are control mechanisms intended to continue the cycle of competition over cooperation... distinction instead of integration... motivated by control dramas of the ego; which only succeeds in manufacturing imbalance and inequity. Our dominant authoritarian culture has conditioned us with ancient, subliminal, institutionalized and protracted patterns of thought (and, by extension, behavior); routine indoctrination by memes at virtually all levels of society which creates a prison of and for the mind.

We live what we learn.

As a society, we have become so placated by-- and so dependent on-- "the way things are" that we will instinctively defend, support and promote that system-- regardless-- simply because we have no other alternative available to us. Or so it would seem. So we have been led to believe and accept. We are systematically subdued and confined, and yet told that we are free. Just as a slave serves its master, we are given no choice in the matter of directing our lives but to obey... or be punished; while often simultaneously manipulated into thinking that we are well treated. But no matter how comfortable our beds may be, we are still chained to them to some degree if we remain within this system. Even the masters are forced to rely on their slaves. Resistance appears futile. But is it really?

We are as prisoners, chained in Plato's allegorical cave; preoccupied with shadows on the wall... oblivious to the fire within. Our best defense is education against the ignorance. The more people become aware of the cause and effect of these anti-social institutions, the less power these institutions will have to dominate us. This liberation depends on the invalidation of the Anti-civilization. And this can only occur when we defy and deny its authority over us; and reclaim/ accept the power it took from us. Even the Warden is still in a prison. We can remain captive to our ignorance...or choose to be free.

But, as stated earlier, one cannot be told what the Matrix is, one has to identify and experience it on one's own.

You can believe whatever you want.

You-- as an individual-- must make the effort to choose to want to seek and see truth.

You cannot and will not see unless you want to see. Until you open your mind to the possibility.

One cannot adequately understand the illusion/ delusion we are immersed in until he/ she can realize and interpret it for him/ herself. Something becomes more real to us through the personal experience of it, as opposed to the telling of it.

Our reality is all in the mind. Reality is perception. But the question then becomes "whose perception?".

What is freedom, and what does it mean to be free?

But to answer that we must first answer "free from what?"... "free for what?"... "free in relation to what?".

Freedom is relative, and occurs in degrees of context.

Ultimately, though, it can be defined as deliberate conceptual mobility; or deliberate mobile conceptuality.

Many of us may have a conception of freedom, but few of us have a perception of it. We generally think of it as an abstraction, rather than know it as a manifestation.

Don't think it... know it. But it is not enough to know it; that is only the beginning... we must live it to make it real. The lesson is only a guide, and is impotent if not engaged. Fiction is a reflection and extension of us, and exists as another level of reality; no less meaningful and no less relevant to our perceptions and perspectives than non-fiction. It shapes our experiences as our experiences shape it.

If we relegate The Matrix film to nothing more than entertainment status, and not elevate it to a didactic mirror... then we ignore the lesson of this cautionary tale to our own detriment...dooming ourselves to bondage. There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.

I can only show you the door. You must choose to open it.

Are you ready for the truth? Will you choose the red pill and wake, or the blue pill and sleep?

Think about it. Pierce the veil of ignorance.

Wake up!

Get up!

Start a revolution!

Behold: the power of choice. Use it wisely.

by Sean Stubblefield