Blogging Around

First, I commented on Brandon's blog, he and I had written about similar things regarding the Matrix and what the ideas from the Matrix about reality actually meant to us.

"Brandon, I largely agree with what you have here. If the world were to be “fake”, we would have no way of knowing it, and no way of identifying what it is we actually know. It’s a load of circular logic. That’s why I feel it is best to just ignore the possibility that everything we know might have no basis. If we do accept that it is a possibility, there’s no way we can evaluate anything whatsoever. Even if we think we can get outside of it the system, the same logic applies, forces us to doubt everything and destroys our perception of anything.Anyway, good post and good analysis of what it actually means to you. (in this case nothing :P)

-Deuce"

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Second, I commented on Albert's blog. He had written about the Matrix and postmodern systems in general. Though I agreed with his broader ideas, I didn't accept his example of a possible postmodern system that applies to our lives.

Albert,

You've got some cool points here, but I've got to disagree (with at least the way Eli spun it). I don't believe the claim can be supported that there is a postmodern system in the way the rich man "exploits" the poor, at least not a system that the rich man has created.

The conflicts people talk about with the poor rebelling against the opressive rich does not exhibit a group of people fighting against the system. Those rebelling are just as evil as the rich.

"If you can't win the game, change the rules". I think this quote largely applies to what we're talking about. The poor are not an example of people rebelling against the system in order to get out of it. The poor, exploitated, are people within the system, that maintain a framework according to the system and rebel against those doing better because they are mad that they are not on the top, within the system. When they claim that they want to deconstruct the system, they mean maintain the system, but place themselves in more favorable spot WITHIN it.

It is this framework, which obviously is a mark of evolution, and the desire to survive, that is the system itself. The rich are not the creators, they too are within it, they too suffer as they increasingly do not understand where they find value in life and how they relate to those people and things around them. Humanity upholds this ideal of understanding ourselves, but we cannot escape this endless cycle, we cannot escape this framework that kills our spirits and, ironically, has been key to our survival. In other words, there's no way to truly break out of the system. (At least this, rich-poor system, which is an example of a post-modern system)

This, of course builds up. We think we are different from animals. We are the same, we operate the same, we just confuse ourselves by creating meaning where there is none. Humans, animals, all life, the same goal, the same finish line, the same process, the way we view this process has merely become inflated with our infatuation with ourselves.

The Matrix is the ultimate manifestation of this system. We created ourselves to end this way. We allowed for the Matrix to enslave us. The Matrix is the finish line of the endless drive towards mediocrity and exploitation of ourselves for ourselves. We created the machines, they are merely a metaphor for what we will become, perhaps what we are already or always have been and always will be, machines that operate with a routine, with a goal, to sustain itself and further an existence that is neither meaningful nor fulfilling.

-Mitchell"