“You are a slave, Neo.”
I saw The Matrix just after it came out. Friends saw it one evening and then called late that night and said #1 and I had to see it immediately, so we saw it 15 minutes later. It was worth it.
#1 got me a book about the spiritual concepts in the movie. While I appreciated the gift, I never read it. Sometimes I think it’s best if a person formulates their own ideas about art and to do that one has to avoid tainting the process with more information from others or from the artists themselves.
Now I’ve been thinking about the movie for more than a decade, so I’m going to tell you what I think about it. If you haven’t seen the movie or haven’t done all the figuring you’re planning to do about the movie, then stop reading here. Click on another posting of mine — stay on this site for hours!! hehe
Yes, it’s basically a parallel telling of the legend of Jesus Christ, but the most important message is in how it differs from the story of Jesus.
In the movie, most human beings have been enslaved by machines.
In our “real” world (it’s not, but you think it is… no you’re not living in The Matrix), people are not being enslaved by machines, they’ve been enslaved by people trying to use them as though they are machines.
With all due respect to the industrial revolution and Henry Ford, people are not machines. They are not “human resources,” people are people and much more special than anything that can be measured out and used like a resource.
Human beings are creators, made in the image of The Creator, who can produce resources more valuable than oil, more important than light and heat. Human beings can inspire other human beings to do the same. The transfer of these resources is completely “free” and those resources multiply in the minds of the recipients.
Oh, back to being turned into machines.
Your brain does not live on a clock. Time flies when you’re having fun. Time drags when you’re being used as a machine.
All acute modern human ailments are a direct result of people trying to live on schedules set by others: They’re all stress related.
Right now, I work in the service industry. Unfortunately, it’s not the sex industry; I work in the IT Support industry. We fix computer problems for people working in offices. These offices operate on schedules because that’s how humans have decided to live. So, for the time being, I have to conform to an 8-5 schedule to be ready to help people when they need it.
When I’m free of this schedule (and that time is coming, my friend… it IS coming) then I will live on more of a 24-30 hours awake / 8-10 hours asleep schedule which means that I’ll be out of sync with the humans living as machines, but much happier and healthier. I’ll be awake sometimes at dawn and sometimes in the black of night and sometimes at noon.
We have all these people out of work. It would be cool if businesses could lighten up a little and let people share jobs. If someone has to stay home for a couple of hours to get a kid to a doctor’s appointment, then there’s someone else looking for hours who could fill in.
Let’s see, when did the movie 9 To 5 come out?
By the way, those friends who introduced me to The Matrix, The Talking Heads, and They Might Be Giants, and embedded programming, and cool thinking, and fun, and Raising Arizona, and this, and that, and laughter, and fun… no longer speak to me.
There are machines in this world who think human beings who believe in something the machines will not see are foolish and stupid. They think spreading the word about things the machines will not see is irresponsible — like selling snake oil and penis enlargement supplements (snake oil that makes your penis larger, perhaps).
I don’t believe in God, or gravity.
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