Society overall has a hard time accepting the realities of the world we live in. Though many are very knowledgeable of the painful truths, most ignore their surroundings for a happier state of mind as others act upon it, passing down this way of being to generations to come. In the text “The Allegory of the Cave”, Socretes describes a scenario of a prisoner who learns the pain of reality yet accepts it as time passes. In the movie “The Matrix”, we find the protagonist Neo, struggling with what was his reality, actually being a made up world and the reality that the world is a post war land of human slaves. In comparison to today, “The Matrix” point of view is more accurate.
“The Allegory of the Cave” is a good description of how today in age we are raised by our parents/guardians. We live in the cave we’re sheltered in our whole lives from real bills and expenses and our obligated to go by their rules as long as we live in their households. It is not till we are on our own and face real responsibilities that we understand the painful reality that life does not come as easy as our guardians made it out to be. After Socretes explains to Glaucon the metaphor of his story and that life can be blinded to the problems of the world, he is confused. This differs in the case of “The Matrix” were he actually experiences the painful truth of what has become of the world.
Having faith that he is “the one”, Morpheous shows Neo the simulation he was living in. He sees people generically going about their day oblivious to what’s going on around them. As he compares it to the reality of what has happened to humanity in post war he finally takes an understanding. Today, we often go about our days in our normal routines not stopping to think of how we got here and suppressing our problems. In history we can learn the reality of how we murdered thousands of Native Americans and attempted to teach them our ways and suppress their knowledge. Today, the Native Americans that live on reservations live tax free as if that makes up for the damage we caused. Yet we choose to blind ourselves until someone addresses it.
After Neo accepts the truth of reality he makes his own destiny. For many it is easier to live ignorantly so that a life of happiness is possible. After Cypher accepted the reality of his new life, he bargained in order to live ignorantly and blissfully; reason being life was so harsh. We see the same outcome in the play “Oedipus and the King” when Oedipus ignorance leads him into finding out he murdered his father and married his own mother. Unable to bare the guilt, he blinds himself. Unlike Cypher in “The Matrix”, Oedipus chooses to never witness happiness and deal with the painful reality of his choices.
We tend to ignore the long term effects of our choices so that we may live blissfully ignorant today. Whether it be the childhood fables our parents feed us when were younger or the effects of topics such as pollution, it is easier to succumb to our everyday routines. “The Matrix” has a good way of depicting this real life scenario.
No comments:
Post a Comment