‘The Matrix was born out of a lot of anger and a lot of rage, and it’s rage at capitalism and corporatized structure and forms of oppression’.
LILLY WACHOWSKI, THE CO-CREATOR OF ‘THE MATRIX’ SERIES
The Matrix can be viewed with many lenses. Here, let us view it via the anti-capitalist lens and try to understand how appropriately that lens might have conveyed its message.
· Waking Up – Class Consciousness
The most famous scene from the movie where Neo chooses the red pill, he wakes up from the simulation and gets rescued by Morpheus and team. Waking up from the computer simulation that he has been, since who knows when, is a clear reference to people like us becoming class conscious. And as we all know, class consciousness is the starting point for the revolution Marx speaks about.
· Source of Power – Exploitation
It cannot get more direct than this. The machines capture and cultivate humans so that they can harvest the humans’ bioelectric power to keep themselves running. Harvesting the humans’ bioelectric power? Clearly a corollary to sucking the blood of the proletariats to keep the wheels of Capitalism running.
· The Woman in the Red Dress – An Illusion
I took this ‘Woman in the Red Dress’ as a reference to many things that keep this system running. Things such as trickle down economics, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and many other things that are just illusions to keep the people ignorant about the evils of the system and carry on it’s main function (the exploitation of the proletariat) with little to no risk.
· Not ready to be Unplugged
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”
MORPHEUS FROM ‘THE MATRIX’ (1999)
Perhaps the best explanation why it is so hard to beat The Matrix i.e. Capitalism in our case comes from Morpheus himself and I think no further explanation is needed for this.
· Preferring the Matrix
Perhaps the biggest danger that lies in this battle. Becoming class conscious is one, ignorantly fighting hard for the exploiting system is other but even after becoming class conscious and knowing the system’s exploitations, people tending to prefer ‘The Matrix’ is one of the main reasons why it is so hard to beat this system.
· The End of the Road
“You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.”
NEO FROM ‘THE MATRIX’ (1999)
Those are the last words of Neo from The Matrix (1999). What he talks about? If I can say, it appears to me that Neo is speaking about a classless society which is obviously the ultimate goal of Marx.
“Do not try and bend the spoon – that’s impossible.
Instead, only try to realize the truth.”
“What truth?”
“There is no spoon.”
FROM ‘THE MATRIX’ (1999)
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