The Matrix: Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve.
A couple of weeks ago, Nancy and I binged watched the complete Matrix trilogy. All three films. The Matrix trilogy is complex, referencing many allegories ranging from Plato’s cave to postmodernism. One could spend hours discussing the various implications of it.
However, one theme struck me over and over. The power of choice. Do I take the red pill or the blue pill? Over and over Neo faces choices. When the Architect offers Neo the choice between going through one of two doors, he chooses the door that will save Trinity rather than the other door which the previous five “Neo’s” have chosen. The door which will save Zion from destruction. Near the conclusion of the three films Smith fights with Neo and exasperated by Neo’s persistence in fighting what seems to be a losing struggle, screams at Neo, “Why? Why do you continue to fight a losing battle?”
Neo’s answer: because I choose to.
“As The Architect in Matrix Reloaded so eloquently explains to us: Choice is simultaneously both the highest form of thought control and the greatest weakness in any thought control system.
Nothing is better at influencing our thoughts and emotions better than the ideas we have consented to. What we resist, we know we don’t want. But when we agree with something, when we make a conscious decision to accept a condition in our lives, we are essentially giving it permission to affect us.
This is the basic premise of why the Matrix works.”
https://medium.com/societalengineering/the-problem-is-choice-9e5824f36f32
Unfortunately for the matrix, I believe that we humans have the freedom to make our choices. I reject the idea that the freedom to make a choice is a manipulation by the system. This is why such heroes such as Martin Luther King and Gandhi often make unpopular choices. It would be so much easier to go along with the system, to fit in, and to play along with the matrix. But thank God there are a few heroes out there who take “The Road Less Traveled.”
I can only hope that if the day comes when I hear that voice saying, “Choose you this day whom you will serve,” I make the courageous choice. Until then, I choose to speak my truth as I see it regardless whether anyone reads it or listens to my thoughts. I hope that is part of who I am.
I'm with you. My heroes are people like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi. People who at great risk to themselves, sacrificed their lives for the greater good of all. If everyone thought like that, the world would be a much better place to live.
Ron