MATRIX WARRIOR

possibility of humatons questioning the matrix, much less rebelling against it, is kept to the
absolute minimum. Matrix warriors — humatons who have begun to rebel and unplug — are
therefore a rare occurrence, and tend to be viewed by other humatons as at best an
aberration, at worst a sort of disease. They are units in revolt against the collective economy
and need to be purged. Above all, what gives rise to suspicion and resentment in the average
humaton is the matrix warrior's apparent indifference to things that the humaton considers so
important. Warriors must be careful not to give offence with their flagrant disregard for the
program, since to humatons this amounts to a disregard for human values, and makes the
warriors appear to be psychopaths.
Since matrix warriors swim not with but against the current, they must take the utmost care to
conceal this fact from humatons, for they are the current warriors are swimming against.
Humatons take offence very easily. Anyone they perceive as a threat to their security they
can turn upon, like a wild animal protecting its young. For this reason matrix warriors are the
soul of subtlety and courtesy when it comes to waking up their fellow humatons. They won't
talk about the weather or modes of transport, and they have no personal history as such to
share (at least not the mundane kind humatons are seeking); but they are compelled to guide
the conversation as naturally as possible into more creative and unmapped areas. These
areas are outside the field of concern which the matrix provides for humatons; they are like a
wilderness that humatons rarely, if ever, venture into. By sustaining eye contact, asking the
right questions (searching but not impertinent, personal without being presumptuous) and by
arousing curiosity with their innate confidence and clarity, the matrix warriors can bring most
humatons briefly out of the repeating loop of their thoughts; before they know it, they will be
experiencing the illicit thrill of original (or at least fresh and new) thoughts. They will be like
teenagers having sex for the first time.
Matrix warriors amuse themselves in this manner, though their motives are anything but
personal amusement. Since it is humatons who keep the matrix in place, the more of them
that can be gently led towards unplugging, the less hold the matrix will have over a matrix
warrior's own thoughts and actions. A matrix warrior's work is never done, not until the very
last humaton is unplugged. Despite programmed resistance to the 'red pill philosophies' of
matrix warriors and sorcerers, humatons - at least those with some remaining spark of
creativity within them (those who feel that splinter in their brains) - are easily seduced by the
alternative options on offer. By the time they are in their late 20s or early 30s, humatons have
accepted that life is basically a rigged game, that things don't go the way they would like
them to, that the innocent are not protected, justice does not prevail, and the truth will not out,
at least in their lifetimes. They are resigned to a ceaseless struggle and an endless life of
drudgery, in which half their time is spent slaving at jobs they have no interest for, and the
other half vacationing and recuperating from this voluntary enslavement. Humatons
(assuming they aren't living on the street or junked to the eyeballs) slave their lives away and
invest their time and energy in a system, an 'economy', that they never really believe in, for
the simple reason that they have no faith in any viable alternative. They dream of getting out,
but these dreams only serve to placate them and resign them to their 'reality'. Instead of
acting on these dreams, they simply take temporary refuge in them. Thus life in the matrix is
for most humatons a continuous process of embitterment and disillusionment that ends,
finally (and far too soon), in death.
Life in the matrix is a constant struggle for the matrix warriors, too, and disillusionment is the
essence of their journey. But there is no bitterness in the life of a warrior. Since they know
everything is an illusion, they are more than happy to be rid of these illusions, and so can
celebrate the process rather than lament it. This is the basic difference between the humaton
and the warrior: humatons hang on to what they've got even though it only makes them
weak, dependent, and miserable. Matrix warriors let it all go, and know they have not lost a
thing. Although they are hooked into the same flux and flow, the same economy, as other
MATRIX WARRIOR - Being the One 50
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