|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
What is the Matrix?
In the 1999 blockbuster sci-fi action movie known as the Matrix, the main character, Neo (played badly by Keanu Reeves) ( Yes, i think that Keanu Reeves is a bad actor...) is told by his mentor, Morpheus ( played by Lawrence Fishburne) that the Matrix is a computer generated dreamworld created to cloud our minds to hide us from the truth of the real world, to keep us in check as we become nothing more than a power source for the machines that rule the real world.
It is in my belief that I live in a Matrix of my own. And if you are reading this, I assume that you are from one of the G-7 countries because it means that you have access to a computer and that you are living in an industrialized country, and chances are that you own the computer you are using to read this.
Do you live In a big city ? In the suburbs ? In a small town? Are you living in a countryside and are in touch with the land as it is untainted by the pollution of big cities? Do you buy food? Do you drink Coke or Pepsi? Do you watch TV ? Are you comfortable?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you are not living in the real world.
The beauty that surrounds you, the house or the appartment where you reside ,the material comfort you bathe in, the television that entertains you, the sports you practice for pure pleasure... They are all there to keep you in check, they are all there to hide the truth from you. They are all there to please you, even though you worked hard to buy those luxuries.
What is our Matrix? It is a reality of comfort that hides you from the ugly realities of truth.
You live in an industrialized country as I do. You have been told of the evils of the world, you have been told how children die of hunger every few seconds in the "Third World" because of the debt they have towards industrialized countries, you know that children are exploited and underpaid to put together products that you buy. And having learned of those facts, perhaps you find it sad, or perhaps you have decided to disregard it all with the argument that "A dollar a day is worth alot more overthere than it is over here." and go on living your comfortable little life in your house or in your appartment.
The thing is, you may think that you understand what is going on around you, or perhaps you don't and really don't give a damn, but in the end, no matter how well informed you may think you are, you do not understand fully the complexity of the evils of our world, and neither do I.
You think that coffee you're drinking doesn't have a story behind it? That car you're driving, what exactly does it represent ? That soccer ball the kids are playing with in the park near your house, what does it really mean ? That piece of paper you're using to write to your grandmother that lives miles away?
All the products that our society of consommation offer you are there to shut you up, and they are produced at a price that far exceeds money, they are produced at the cost of human life and limbs, they are produced at the cost of excessive environmental destruction and total anihilation of culture...
You think that you're free to chose? Let me quote the opening lines in the movie trainspotting, I'll get back to you right after...
"Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family, Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life."
Every single time you make one of those choices, someone suffers because of it, every single time you make one of those choices, you are wasting more of the world's ressources. Every time you make one of those choices, you feed the corporate machine that is using all of us as nothing more than batteries to make it function. All in the name of having the "freedom" to choose, all in the name of comfort... You are a corporate slave as am I, you live in the dreamworld of the industrialized world, of a capitalist society...
Some of us woke up from this dreamworld, and are fighting actively against these incredible odds to free people from this prison. Like in the movie ( The Matrix), we are labelled as terrorists by the world, we are seen as outlaws. Society will not have us, society refuses to let us be heard. And so we take mopre radical means to fight forthis cause. Like in movie, informers and moles infiltrate our affinity groups of actions, so that the medias can truly label us as terrorists ( as it was the case of the affinity group known as Germinal during the Quebec protests). The comfort is so great for some in this dreamworld that they are ready to fight us as police officers and soldiers to protect this dream. But unlike the movie, we do not have a chosen one to make miracles to help us, we do not have a hero that rises like a phoenix from the ashes to lead us to victory. We can only rely on ourselves...and each other.
So what are you going to do from here on? Will you wake up and do what you can? Or will you continue in your deep comfortable sleep?
