MATRIX WARRIOR

lifeless, indolent, as if having given in to a mundane and dreary fate which he never wished
for, but cannot escape or improve upon. At his place of work, while windowcleaners wipe the
glass (despite itself, the matrix is hinting at the need for lucidity ?), Thomas's superior tells
him that he has 'a problem with authority', and believes 'the rules do not apply' to him.
Obviously, Thomas is mistaken. He is 'part of a whole', just another component in the
machine. In a few moments, with the intervention of Morpheus and of the matrix itself (in the
form of two sinister Gatekeepers), Thomas will prove to his superior just how different he is.
Thomas has a hidden side, an alter ego, and is wanted by just about everybody. It is when
Thomas receives the package with the cell phone inside, or rather at the moment when the
phone rings, that his old life effectively ends. The spell is broken. Until this moment,
Thomas's life has been no more than a fuzzy, forgettable dream, a bad mescaline trip. His
every 'act' within this dream world has been predetermined, programmed from without by a
vast, invisible circuit board. This corporate brain has fed him every last one of his thoughts,
emotions, and responses, and kept him in thrall to it, with the sole end of feeding off his
energy. Thomas, as will soon be revealed, is not even a cog in the machine: he is just a
battery cell, and one of billions. He is utterly expendable. Since his life force is all that is
required of him, he is basically the same as any other human. And because this life force is
being constantly drained out of him, by the invisible system into which he is plugged, there is
nothing left of Thomas, nothing remaining for his own uses. He really is indistinguishable
from six billion other 'cells'. Thomas's boss is right. The matrix is talking to Thomas; it is
giving him the score.
Thomas's spirit has been taken captive by the machine in order for the machine to animate
itself. 'Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.' All that is left of Thomas is an empty
shell, living out a hollow, purposeless life, interchangeable with six billion other hollow,
meaningless 'lives'. But Thomas is about to find out just how far from the truth he has
strayed. He is about to find out that the agenda he has been serving is anything but human.
And when he finally accepts the signs for what they are, he must also accept that he can
never be part of this agenda again, nor can he ever again fully believe what he sees. He
must become a mystery to himself, a stranger. At which point, his life ceases to be an
endless series of mundane problems, of personal irritations that never lead anywhere but
frustration, and becomes instead a living challenge of nearly infinite proportions. If this is
starting to sound familiar, then it ought to. This is the story of 'the One', but it's also the story
of us all.
To put it another way: Neo may be the One; but he ain't the only.
(5)
Hologram Ethics: Reality as Game-Plan
(2)
Second Variable
There Is No Spoon
It seems axiomatic to say that Nature does not make mistakes, and that instincts can never
be 'wrong.' One might as well posit a fallible God: what's the point in having (or being) a God
if He's just like us, weak and unreliable ? Apropros this, it is the common assumption of
MATRIX WARRIOR - Being the One 22
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