MATRIX WARRIOR

My point for now is merely to show how The Matrix brought to a large number of people, in a
suitably entertaining, even frivolous and simplistic, fashion, questions that are central to our
present predicament as humans, and indeed to the very meaning of what it is to be human.
Like all good myths, the movie addresses individual and universal concerns, both real and
mundane, and takes them into a more fantastic realm. As a result, despite, or rather because
of, their being removed from our everyday frame of reference, these concerns begin to make
a new kind of sense to us. The truth dawns, if only for the two hours during which we are
transported to an alternate universe, a universe in which nothing is true and, consequently,
anything is possible. To put it another way, the frustration, despair and existential panic; the
boredom, anxiety, paranoia, loss of identity, sense of unreality; the feeling of being trapped,
of being drained of one's will and energy, of being plotted against, confounded, and blocked
at every turn, and, above all, the sense of utter meaninglessness and futility that pervades
collective and individual life in the twenty-first century, all begin to make perfect sense within
the frame of reference provided by The Matrix.
This is what myths are all about. They aren't rational explanations of our lives so much as
emotional interpretations. They are designed not to explain what's going on, but rather to
account for and shed light upon our feelings about what's going on. Myths are collective
dreams. So, a myth like The Matrix, which suggests that life is a collective dream, is really the
ultimate myth-story. It is the myth of humanity itself, a dream within a dream, a myth about a
myth, a metaphor for a metaphor. Hence the movie seamlessly fuses science with religion,
revealing both to be but alternate, opposing modes of mythology: those of the rational and
intuitive modes, or left and right brain respectively. The truth, then, is to be found not through
one or the other, but through the correct juxtaposing and balancing of both. If life itself is but
a temporary, illusory, and even, finally, arbitrary interpretation of energy, then myths are
blueprints by which we might come to understand the mental processes that give rise to a
given interpretation. It is not that they are outside reality because they are less than it but, on
the contrary, they are outside reality because they are the means by which reality is created.
In which case, a movie, being a hologrammatic package within the greater hologram of life
itself, might conceivably be a window, or even a doorway, to that reality which lies beyond. It
may just be exactly what the geeks and dopers are trying to tell us it is: Truth.
Like all true myths, The Matrix is a journey of individuation, by which the soul, through trial
and adversity, purges itself of all that is foreign to it and so comes to experience the totality of
itself. This apotheosis of self (in the movie) consists of a form of enlightenment in which the
world entire becomes no more than a mirage, a mirage by which the soul is tricked, tested,
and challenged. Once Neo is able to 'read the code', the game is over; or at least he has
moved to the next level. He shakes his head wryly, perhaps a little sadly, and stops the
incoming bullets with a lazy wave of his hand, as if to say, 'No more of that'. By seeing the
world as it is he has transformed it from an adversary into an ally, perhaps even a lover: it is
subject to his will, to shape as he sees fit. This transcendental climax makes The Matrix, the
greatest and most popular action movie ever made, not just a modern myth but a metamyth:
a myth about the eternal process by which myths, and humans, are made. It reveals the
world itself as a myth, and Man, as both Messiah and Adversary, still torn between the two
opposing sides of his nature.
Since so many adolescent, and even older, viewers believe the movie to hold secrets that
only they can decipher, secrets of empowerment, enlightenment, and emancipation, it would
be rash of us to dismiss this possibility without further investigation. If we credit the dopers,
movie nerds, and cyberpunks, the carriers of the coming Zeitgeist, with the discernment to
tell a simple sci-fi blockbuster from a genuine revelation, then we owe it to them, and to
ourselves, to at least entertain the possibility that The Matrix is something more than just a
movie. Since the kids of today seem to prefer to read from a computer screen; since images,
or light, are their chosen medium; since action, fantasy, romance, horror, and special effects
MATRIX WARRIOR - Being the One 8
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