What is the Matrix? I don’t know, but read this faux-intellectual post about my theory….
Originally published at shanefitzsimmons.com. You can comment here or there.
Been thinking a bit about reality lately. Not so much in the science fiction sense that the subject of this post implies, but more in terms of people, and the enormous lengths they go to to create a reality for themselves that they can be happy with, so that they can look at themselves in the mirror, and better yet, look down at other people for not being like them.
In other words, we do live in the Matrix, and the artificial construct you’ve built for yourself consists of all the lies you tell yourself until they’re so ingrained in you (and typically supported by millions of others to make it easier to go along with) that you actually believe everything you say. Suddenly “lies” really only consists of the big, obvious surface ones.
I think it’s for these reasons that people don’t look beneath the surface for anything. Everybody wants simple answers to every question, and complicated ones are thrown out as simply being false. As with any system, there are varying degrees of this, and I’m certainly not claiming that this simple truth is simple at all, or that it can be blanketed and categorized in a single even figure. It’s just easier to talk in general, broad terms, but anybody who thinks that somebody who uses generalizations believes that those generalizations are rigid and apply to everything is a fucking idiot. I’m not saying that those people don’t exist, but I’m not one of them, and I don’t think most people are.
Anyway, take every shitty thing our government has ever done, or any government has ever done, that didn’t result in that government being overthrown or otherwise seriously kicked in the ass. Governments get away with a lot, simply because people will apologize for them endlessly, specifically because people don’t want to feel like their government is corrupt or even remotely fallible. Sure, everybody generally agrees that our government is fucked up and yadda yadda, but as soon as you start getting into specifics, that’s when the bullshit starts to arise, excuses are made, ultimately so that we can avoid having to feel bad about not doing anything about it.
This, by the way, isn’t to say that nobody does anything ever, obviously a great deal of problems are always being worked on and in some cases, even fixed. So don’t take my generalizations so absolutely, they ain’t meant to be.
Take the war in Iraq. Whether we should have gone in is irrelevent. What is indisputable is that our government lied lied lied to us about why we were going there in the first place. I’m not saying that this is never talked about, or even that nobody is trying to do anything about it. But talk to your common man, and what does he say about it? He shrugs, and explains that, even if we were lied to, we’re at least doing good work there. Or, they go the “Saddam was an evil dictator and needed to be taken out” route.
Most people, I think, don’t really know what the fuck is going on about anything. Most people, I think, believe whatever they’re told, once they hear it enough times. Actual “evidence” doesn’t actually matter once you’ve heard a rumor enough times. It takes a long time for truth to break through lies, specifically because everybody clings to them like their entire existence depends on them.
I’m not immune to this, mind you. And neither are you. We all see the world how we want to, and I don’t think anybody isn’t completely full of shit in most ways, even the people who do look deeper, seek actual evidence, and look at a variety of sources before they believe anything. I think that, generally, these people are probably closer to my personal ideal, but everybody lies to themselves.
I don’t think that this a problem that can be solved. Helped, sure, but never solved. I think that the first step, the Red Pill, if you will, is to recognize the very complicated but relatively straightforward fact, that everybody lies to themselves. I think that, once you’ve discovered this fact, you can start seeing the world as it actually is. Everything about human nature begins to reveal itself once you realize that basically everything is bullshit. Corporate America starts making a hell of a lot of sense, governments, the election game, college, what life means, what matters, cynicism and idealism and everything about human perception leads back to the fact that people are just generally full of shit.