Original date of publication: July 2019.
The Matrix - movie made in the turn of the millenium, a work that was supposed to move the world and change the thinking and to predict everything that any trash science fiction has already predicted more than decade ago is based on a myth that was at least 1500 years old. Anyone trying to use it for their own goals, cultural, political, etc. fails to its mistakes and assumes that they can control it. The failure of Matrix's sequels is based upon a failure to ascend the myth clearly (and make a profit, as this is the American cinema we are talking of here). It is a common myth, and it was used and abused by many intelligent people to show how they can be superior to others and in this way use people's insecurities to gain power.
Matrix, the movie that sadly everyone watched. How better would it be if it was a hidden gem, which would have much more creative freedoms and its epistemological mistakes would not be a problem. But sadly we've got a problem, a big one. The controller chip for our water purification system has given up the ghost! Can't make another one and the process is too complicated for a workaround system. Simply put, Wachowskis had no understanding of philosophy they wanted to use, and commited the mistakes that started with the grandest of the grand misunderstandings in philosophy and theology. Probably not because of their want to commit such misunderstanding, but just because they lacked knowledge of the history. Well, they are directors after all...
Imagine, the world in which the religious authority has collapsed, and the ruling power has not come up with normal means of validation. Matter of fact, ruling power requires theology to be dominant. Therefore the theological/religious aspect determines the political. In such world, a person considering to have beliefs which are above the general populous has a position of power and is able to gain followers on basis of 'freeing' from this basic view on which the society we are is built. That world is the world of Imperium Romanum. And that movement are gnostics, which themselves started from misunderstanding of still taught Idealist/Platonist theory of knowledge. Ah, the sun of good, and the good is always knowledgable and is beyond the realm of politics and therefore everyone who is in it and has the access to this truth is already successful and better for everyone. He is the one who deserves all upvotes, and cannot err as his erring would show that he is not under the sun of good.
There is a single problem with this thinking. Maybe a couple. Actually, a lot. The most simple one is the ethical position, as with great power comes great responsibility. And that power being epistemological superiority and thinking that your knowledge is above the society, and everyone who is outside of your cast (which is quite useful when you are heretical movement in the Imperium Romanum) is your enemy.
And now we can come back to Matrix. For our brief goals, we need to focus on the first one. I will write on the later parts in some other article as they attempt to disprove the myth after Baurdrillard's criticism.
ACT II
enter Jean Baudrillard
BAUDRILLARD: Capitalism changes the way we see value, and the value started represent itself, and it is the simple epistemological event in which the value stands.
WACHOWSKIS: Simulation!
BAUDRILLARD: Yes, simulation, as the value is simulated as it has nothing to do with reality concret. But of greater matter are simulacra the images of things which did not have originals to begin with!
WACHOWSKIS: Like a virtual realityyyyyyyyy...
BAUDRILLARD: why would you think like that. The simulations and simulacras are bases of our reality, and some people would consider some insurrectionary crap as means of escaping them. But as you know unsheaths sword I am part of the great postmodernist movement. I do not care about meta-narratives! It is the experience which contributes to the truth!
WACHOWSKIS: run away That was virtual reality tho, and the reality, can be escaped only through... ... ... ... .. . .. ... .... LEAVING ... THE ... SIMULATION!
BAUDRILLARD: Oh no
NARRATOR: And so it has happened, the Wachowskis managed to get funds and created a movie about individual fighting against simulated reality. What is even more intersting, they used the term 'desert of the real', which is connected to of a fact how in psychoanalysis the non-symbolic sphere is quite deserted and not of real use and applied it, whelp, literally. Literally. It was at that time, I realised there was a mistake, that was of no matter to people watching. But sadly, the old Jean Baudrillard would come back, and through a simple trick get the happy Wachowskis to create movies which will attempt show some metaphor. The problem was that Wachowskis were unable to understand metaphores, but wanted to keep their spines. After some time, they also did change their gender. People do that.
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And with a literal interpretation of a complex philosophical notion came a work, which again, committed a mistake known and famous, the mistake of recreation of gnostic myth. This time Gods again were rugged and tired, and nothing like the fake pristine world in which we live in. Again, the central phenomenological realm (as the upper, non-Matrix realm, also could be experienced, telling something of the problem if you think with your big brain) is beautiful, but this beauty as it will be unearthed to us - is a fake one, as it was manufactured. Look around yourself, find a thing that has not been manufactured at all and is natural, if you find one, you can email me, I will be happy to see you finding essentialism. I like essentialism, especially when it is considered real.
And with those two realms, real and manufactured, you have a great start for Gnostic myth. Now, just find a political goal. Do you hate Jews, Women, or maybe you have different identity? Maybe all of those. Maybe some of those, and you hate hating others. Or you hate haters of hate. Or you just hate hatters. Or hatte haters! To think that famous (I mean it defines famous) Neue Deutsche Welle band create song based on similar pun! It is even easier to find a political goal if you think authors put something to defend that goal, or even better THEY DID NOT KNOW what they were doing. Oh, and the great transfusion into the real. The red pill.
I'll attempt to be honest as I can. Be careful with usage of gnostic myths, knowing what they are, as they are weak and cause hatred not only from uninitiated by other Gnostic casts. And first and foremost, nobody has defeated the Demiurge. Oh, the Demiurge. The Demiurge. The real creator of all, and probably creator of the Matrix, and the outside of the matrix. And the outside cannot exist. Being human is being submitted to the Demiurge you cannot ascend his power. Even if you have a cool cast.
Interestingly, some people also wrote boring papers on this. Maybe not as politically and comedically fueled, but boring for sure.
I hope you enjoyed reading this essay as much as I enjoyed writing it.