Hmmm... those were the days.
It used to be extremely fashionable at one time to wonder aloud if the matrix was real; if we were actually living in the matrix; what if the world as we know it was indeed, just a simulation program with a neurological interface. I loved to subscribe to such a view and read a large number of very complicated essays on such topics and hold very involved discussions about it for months, without really understanding what anybody was saying, including myself. That didn't matter. The important thing was, we were all talking about the matrix. It seemed extremely plausible that we may be in a dreamworld.
It was the time when videos like the animatrix and anything with similar themes used to be the ultimate fantasy to indulge in. Screensavers *had* to be matrix themed. Desktop wallpapers *had* to be freeze frames from the matrix, or transcripts of its dialogs, otherwise it was sacrilege. Non-matrix conversations were soaked in matrix lingo and esoteric references to the movie. Why? To revel smugly in the knowledge that we, who had seen the light, stood apart from the visibly annoyed hoi-polloi who had not.
It was a matter of great seriousness to educate non matrixians of their ignorance and in great hurry, induct them into our world through proper guidance and explanations, more so, if the poor victim was female and looked vulnerable. There must have been a time when our gang of 'matrix evangelists' were feared like jack-the-ripper.
But all said, it was a great time. A time of expanding views, a time when knowledge of esoteric ideas gave confidence and joy. A time when there was such a pressing need to not just stand out from a crowd, but to smirk at it too. It must have been a part of growing up, the great search for identity that seizes every teenager, and turns him inside-out, raw, ugly and malevolent before it finally makes him a man. (Pardon the gender non-neutrality but this is my blog)
And like everything else, after a few months of a caffeine-like buzz and feeling heady about belonging to the intellectual upper class, i lost interest. The matrix messiahs were not so active anymore. Weeks went by when none of us used words like 'the oracle', 'nebuchadnezzar', and 'morpheus'.
In time, we surrendered to the general view that the matrix was just a movie, albeit, one with a very well thought-out plot and stunt sequences that would put even Rajnikanth to shame. Of course, nobody openly proclaimed a change in views or a shift in ideology. Thats what zealotry does to you. It pumps your ego so much that to change your stand becomes impossible, a sort of my-dignity-or-my-death issue. We have seen it in communists and militants, preachers and godmen.
In a few months, all was forgotten and we all went out and got a life, so to speak. That was until matrix revolution. Then it was back to the old times, but a bit more restrained. We had matured enough to say stuff like "Hey I didn't get that bit" or "But that sounds illogical" without drawing furious flak or without having to bury our faces in shame.
After the reloaded was revolution. But this time it was a whole lot different. Many of the hardcore elite even missed the movie. Some were apologetic, some were not. Finally our little gang of matrix messiahs had grown up. They had to after all. And just so i can wind up this piece without losing my life, i sacrifice my dignity to reveal the defection to the opposite party. The final proof of why we are not living in a matrix type of world is that if we were, the agents wouldn't have let such a movie be made. The program that controlled the Wachowski brothers would not have been written thus. That rests my case.
It used to be extremely fashionable at one time to wonder aloud if the matrix was real; if we were actually living in the matrix; what if the world as we know it was indeed, just a simulation program with a neurological interface. I loved to subscribe to such a view and read a large number of very complicated essays on such topics and hold very involved discussions about it for months, without really understanding what anybody was saying, including myself. That didn't matter. The important thing was, we were all talking about the matrix. It seemed extremely plausible that we may be in a dreamworld.
It was the time when videos like the animatrix and anything with similar themes used to be the ultimate fantasy to indulge in. Screensavers *had* to be matrix themed. Desktop wallpapers *had* to be freeze frames from the matrix, or transcripts of its dialogs, otherwise it was sacrilege. Non-matrix conversations were soaked in matrix lingo and esoteric references to the movie. Why? To revel smugly in the knowledge that we, who had seen the light, stood apart from the visibly annoyed hoi-polloi who had not.
It was a matter of great seriousness to educate non matrixians of their ignorance and in great hurry, induct them into our world through proper guidance and explanations, more so, if the poor victim was female and looked vulnerable. There must have been a time when our gang of 'matrix evangelists' were feared like jack-the-ripper.
But all said, it was a great time. A time of expanding views, a time when knowledge of esoteric ideas gave confidence and joy. A time when there was such a pressing need to not just stand out from a crowd, but to smirk at it too. It must have been a part of growing up, the great search for identity that seizes every teenager, and turns him inside-out, raw, ugly and malevolent before it finally makes him a man. (Pardon the gender non-neutrality but this is my blog)
And like everything else, after a few months of a caffeine-like buzz and feeling heady about belonging to the intellectual upper class, i lost interest. The matrix messiahs were not so active anymore. Weeks went by when none of us used words like 'the oracle', 'nebuchadnezzar', and 'morpheus'.
In time, we surrendered to the general view that the matrix was just a movie, albeit, one with a very well thought-out plot and stunt sequences that would put even Rajnikanth to shame. Of course, nobody openly proclaimed a change in views or a shift in ideology. Thats what zealotry does to you. It pumps your ego so much that to change your stand becomes impossible, a sort of my-dignity-or-my-death issue. We have seen it in communists and militants, preachers and godmen.
In a few months, all was forgotten and we all went out and got a life, so to speak. That was until matrix revolution. Then it was back to the old times, but a bit more restrained. We had matured enough to say stuff like "Hey I didn't get that bit" or "But that sounds illogical" without drawing furious flak or without having to bury our faces in shame.
After the reloaded was revolution. But this time it was a whole lot different. Many of the hardcore elite even missed the movie. Some were apologetic, some were not. Finally our little gang of matrix messiahs had grown up. They had to after all. And just so i can wind up this piece without losing my life, i sacrifice my dignity to reveal the defection to the opposite party. The final proof of why we are not living in a matrix type of world is that if we were, the agents wouldn't have let such a movie be made. The program that controlled the Wachowski brothers would not have been written thus. That rests my case.
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