Guest Post:Is The Matrix Closer Than We Think?

Guest Post by Deana, Dorothy and Daphne 

Deana is an aspiring philsosphy student and script writer, who shares our passion for Supernatural (the t.v show) and has a fondness for 'David and Goliath' T shirts. She has a dog called Charlie who thinks he is a fish.


I don’t know if you have seen the sci-fi film The Matrix, it’s a very good film, seconded. In case you haven’t (and you should!) it’s based loosely on the philosopher Plato’s theory of the forms, it describes a world where humans are used as a fuel powered by a reality where they are being kept in a dream-like state, living and enjoying a fantasy world which they presume is reality.

Humans in The Matrix live in ignorance and they say after all that ignorance is bliss. We can condemn the Sentient Machines for causing this horrific action for humans to be trapped in their own minds, being forced a reality. Force-feeding someone a superficial reality is wrong right? But how far is this from our own reality? Let’s look at some examples...

1) As mentioned earlier by Dorothy and Daphne’s’ excellent article about Beyonce, her miming is a pop-world crime. The greatest crime is clearly miming the inauguration of the president. I’m sure she had her reasons as all famous stars apparently do nowadays, blah blah blah, but the fact remains that it was sold to the public on TV that it was LIVE! Live concerts or appearances have the edge over planned appearances; there is spontaneity and a sense of risk that something could go wrong. Yet the fact that she mimed it, undermines the inauguration, herself as an artist and the media in a false presentation to the people. I get what your saying, it's only a little thing, but at the same time it makes it hard for us mere mortals to know whether or not we can believe something that is being posed as a truth, this makes me sad, because we are all going to start living wary and suspicious lives (much like Dorothy does now, I kid, I kid).

2) After the recent news about all this horsemeat scandal in burgers and a huge amount of processed meat, I can be pretty sure that I have most probably eaten horse. I can’t say I am too upset about this, as I have eaten many a exotic meat in my day but I could have sworn on the package it said “BEEF . There is something clearly morally corrupt and, let’s be frank, criminal about being sold something that we didn’t want, If I wanted a horsemeat burger I would buy a burger which was “horsemeat”. I’m pretty sure the big supermarkets didn’t know, but how did we become so disenfranchised from our food that we can’t trust where it comes from or what it is?! Whether or not the supermarkets intended horsemeat to be in burgers, it is clear that we are really kept in the dark about our food industry. I recently started eating meat after never trying it before as I was raised by exotic peoples called Vegetarians, I have now stopped my culinary exploration becasue I don't know what animal I'm eating, I think however that you always know that somethings a fish, so I'm sticking with that. As a vegetarian, consuming neither meat nor fish, I'm feeling pretty smug here since I am pretty confident I can identify that  a potato is in fact a potato. 

3) Lance Armstrong. A hero among sportsmen?  Defied all odds by winning the tour de France, a sporting legend... right? WRONG! He actually denied for years that he took ‘performance enhancements’ as I think they’re formally known and refused to admit that he took drugs to aid his sporting performance. And we believed him... This inspiring figure has crumbled by admitting what he really did. Of course doping occurs in all sports not just cycling but the worrying fact remains is that, when is a world record a world record? Can we always trust these statistics? My dad was really upset about this, he's one of those middle aged men in lyrca, and has had testicular cancer so he held Lance in high esteem, my sister, who is also a keen sportswoman even had Lance quotes next to her bed. 

4) (This is for me my most shocking case) I have a very close connection to the city of Liverpool and my parents were distraught at the Hillsborough Disaster where nearly 100 Liverpool fans of all ages tragically lost their lives. However, days later the police claimed that as the stadium collapsed, the Liverpool football fans were supposedly stealing from the dead bodies and threatening the police - making it impossible for them to get through to aid the dying on the pitch. This hideous lie was considered truth for years. Until recently police admitted that they lied and that this DIDN’T occur. This makes me personally sick that police officers charged with protecting and us and honouring the law, lie to the public with these lies being emphasised and re-published again and again in newspapers. This one is definitely sickening, we live in a world where we are supposed to be good people and help others and make all the right decisions, but how can we respect those that do that professionally, and make the right decisions personally, when even they can't get it right? 

... And I’m sure there are countless other cases I’ve missed. This is by no means a conspiracy theory, but a stark warning of the potential future of this country and indeed the world. Just a quick shout out to Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror here (as recommended to me by Dorothy) that really explores the farcical society we now inhabit. Perhaps it won’t be robots who take over the world as in The Matrix as worldwide superficial media might beat them to it.