Classic procrastinator me walks downstairs to get a snack before starting this blog, and on the television plays the show Mad Men. "The future is something you haven't even imagined yet," Don Draper's trenchant voice says.
In The Matrix, we see Don Draper's point exemplified as the future not being held in an ideal of progress. We'd like to think that all of our advances will be used for the better, but as is evident in our history, there are two sides to every form of 'progress'. So how is progress progress if it makes our future regress?
To me, The Matrix was not so much making a drastic point about a fatalistic view of what our world will come to if we don't regress to the stone ages, but more a nod to literally living in a bubble of ignorance. However, I do think there is something to be said for a fatalistic view to our bubble of ignorance. In a world that is becoming more and more interconnected, it is crucial that our perceptions are not media-centric, and that we still have the ability to think and speak for ourselves. Sure, an advanced computer organism may be progressive, but that does not necessarily mean our futures should be dependent on what this organism wants us to see?
And yes, living in a protected bubble would be wonderful, but what if you were blind to something happening that you are morally opposed to? In essence, our world and the world of The Matrix might have different standards of morality, but in both worlds, your mind is still your mind. I'd like to think that we can shape our future to be less embedded in progressive things and more embedded in actual progression of knowledge. I'm not necessarily saying that this progression means we're all going to wake up, jump out of bed (although honestly, does anyone actually jump out of bed anyway?), and all go parading down the street to take the red pill and bask in our newfound pool of consciousness. But maybe we'd at least slowly lean toward a future where there wouldn't have to be a choice between a red and blue pill in the first place, where knowledge is a universally accessible concept.
I'd like to dedicate this last paragraph to the creator of the names of the characters in the Matrix. Neo=new, Morpheus=greek mythology god of dreams, Cypher=cipher=either a secret or a nonentity, and other assorted computer names. You go, character namer.
Anna,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post, but I think I'm going to have to disagree with you on somethings. I don't think that we will ever be able to live in a society devoid of ignorance, it's just too engrained in our lives. And at this point, it seems, that sometimes ignorance is the only way to go, but I wouldn't say that it is ALWAYS a bad thing. Sometimes subconscious ignorance is the only thing that keeps people going and I don't really have any issue with that, however conscious ignorance, now that I do have a problem with. I think that if you are willingly and knowingly denying something, then that's not okay, and that's where our society runs into an issue. How do we find the balance between conscious and subconscious ignorance? In order to reach the progress that you were talking about, I think that we as a global population must define this balance and then use it to our advantage to better our world. Great post though, I really liked your insights.