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Making
things happen - with integrity. A weekly CyberMemo designed to keep you on task. Monday September 3, 2001 Volume III Number 36 |
FOCUS - The Matrix
One of the more highly regarded youth pastors in our region got himself into hot water with some church members when under his tutelage, high-schoolers gathered for a viewing of the 1999 hit-movie THE MATRIX (now available on DVD and VHS) with discussion following.
It was not only a problem for some that the movie earned an “R” rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) but the whole idea of inviting Hollywood madness and iniquity into the sanctity of a church related youth event that well might involve children under seventeen, well, it was a little more than some devotees of regular church attendance could bear.
Some questioned whether the youth pastor qualified as an accompanying parent or adult guardian. It was a technicality worth pondering. Some wondered, what kind of guardian would so let the guard down?
It made me curious. What was all the ruckus about? I wanted to see for myself.
Since Carolyn is away this weekend at a women’s retreat, I decided to take a look. I got my hands on the DVD and home alone cranked up the entertainment system, full volume, sank into my overstuffed chair and took it in. The Matrix. What a roller coaster ride it was.
Carolyn’s being away is only relevant because, well, movies like The Matrix are generally not the kind we watch together. After all these years, I’ve actually come to appreciate the fact that Carolyn is not particularly taken by the sound of automatic weapons firing in surround sound. The powered sub-woofer, when it rattles the windows in synch with a fiery explosion, and shattered glass falls behind you through the rear tweeters, and human bodies fly apart when impacted by high caliber bullets, and shell casings fall all around; when there’s general mayhem and mass destruction of property and such; let’s just say that this is not Carolyn’s favorite way to spend the evening.
I’ll be sitting in my place, eye’s open wide, dodging bullets from my overstuffed chair, ducking, and grunting; and Carolyn will be across the room on the couch thinking about the ironing that needs doing, or the dishes sitting in the sink or a book that’s far more satisfying than the bedlam on the screen. Neither of those domestic chores nor the unfinished book on my bed table even occur to me during this kind of wild cinematic drama. I just crank up the volume.
Carolyn sometimes just excuses herself without complaint, goes and does something useful. I’ll stay behind and watch, and later she may ask how it ended. Maybe not.
I’m OK with that. (In the early years of our marriage, I’d keep score – I’d sit through her movies and expect her to sit through mine. All that seems rather silly now.) Our tastes can sometimes be a shade different. But mostly in a complimentary sort of way.
So on this weekend, home alone, with unilateral control over the evening’s choice of entertainment, I had complete freedom to cue up and view The Matrix. In it’s entirety. Uncut. Uninterrupted.
The phone didn’t even ring.
* * * * * * * *
The word matrix is fascinating on its own.
Its root word is from the French – mother. It’s a reference to a situation or circumstance from which everything else originates – and one use of the word refers of all things, to the womb. It means a “mold” or “die,” the master form which gives each casting its shape. In anatomy, the matrix is the formative cell or tissue. In geology, the matrix is the solid matter in which a fossil or crystal is embedded. The matrix is the principal metal in an alloy or steel. It is the binding substance, as cement is the matrix in concrete. Mathematics borrows the term matrix to refer to an array of related mathematical formulas, listed in columns or rows. In the world of computers, the matrix is the connection point of a network; the place for encoding and decoding. Historically, printers (as in the printing press) use the term matrix when they speak of a form or mold that makes a repeated impression, every one the same. In the old days of LP vinyl records, the matrix was the original master, from which all imprinted copies were made.
So the matrix then is the essence, defining the whole order of things. It is the master plan. The over-riding formula. The mother of all explanations as to why things are the way they are.
The film takes up the question – why is the world the way it is? How do we explain it? What is The Matrix?
And in this science fiction, set on a stage a hundred years into the future, the entire world has become virtual reality.
Humans, in their technological enthusiasm, endowed computers with artificial intelligence. As machines learned to think for themselves, they developed a plan to overcome their creator. The human race, vulnerable to the superior knowledge and efficiencies of the machines they engineered, were at some point in history overtaken. In the minds of the scriptwriters, The Matrix imagines a time when human beings are eliminated as planet Earth’s ruling species. The whole world became subject to independently operating powerful machines, endowed with the intelligence bestowed upon them by their programmers, machines that possess the capacity to manipulate every aspect of life, as it was once known.
There are only a few genuine human beings left this world of the Matrix now dominated by a complicated web of networked computers. Neo. Oracle. Morpheus. Cypher. They are barely aware of a dim reality long gone. Hope of recovering a human world burns bright… but only in the minds of these few.
This is the basis of the story of the Matrix.
Can humans take back a world controlled by machines?
* * * * * * *
Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is a
computer programmer by day, hacker by night.
On-line, he’s known as NEO. Late
one night, he receives a disturbing communication on his monitor.
A woman named Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) leads him to a
philosopher/mentor, a guru, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who explains
something Neo suspected all along. (The
name Morpheus comes from a character in the ancient Roman poet’s book, Metamorphoses,
written in the time of Christ. Morpheus
was the god of dreams.) Nothing in
the world is real. It is all
contrived.
Morpheus asks Neo a penetrating question. “As you go about your business, you know something is terribly wrong. But you don’t know what.” And Morpheus informs him that that the world he knows doesn’t exist. The Matrix is a clever ruse. A trick. Designed by crafty machines to give the illusion of reality. He takes Neo for a tour of Tom Anderson’s life, "Matrix is the wool that has been pulled over your eyes - that you are a slave."
I wondered what it was that makes this film so fascinating to a whole new generation of moviegoers. Certainly the special effects, seamless and brilliant and creative and compelling, would draw a crowd into the theater even without a plot. But this movie goes beyond images and riveting sequences – it taps into a worldview. A contemporary way of thinking and processing ideas.
The film, including a synthesized sound track that beats out a steady repetitious rhythm, looks and feels and sounds like a video arcade game. The Hong Kong fight sequences, Jujitsu in flight, enabling characters to jump and soar and walk ceilings and walls and deliver jabs and kicks in hang time, are all reminiscent of electronic gaming, interactive battles on a brightly colored monitor commandeered by joysticks and trigger buttons. This generation of moviegoers has logged countless hours on the battlefield of virtual reality. The Matrix is kind of like a homecoming.
Borrowing from biblical imagery, the science fiction introduces Bible sized themes in the story line. The Matrix is “this world system.” It is fundamentally flawed. It holds humanity hostage. The world was once idyllic and free, but has been spoiled by the dark forces of evil and is in desperate need of redemption. Morpheus and his rag-tag band of humans are waiting for the arrival of a redeemer – they call him The One. The Oracle (a woman with profound spiritual insight) so prophesied.
To free the world of this sinister conspiracy, Neo must prepare to engage in a mighty battle with the Matrix’s primary enforcers – the Agents. It will require super-human skill. Morpheus and Trinity dedicate themselves to equip Neo for the final conflict.
The destiny of the human race is hanging in the balance.
* * * * * *
I began to understand the youth pastor’s interest in this movie.
He’s working with high-school kids. They are immersed in a digital world. Their parents are aliens from another planet. He wants them to understand the gospel.
Each generation views the world through its own filters. But some themes never change. They are universal.
As high schoolers reach the age of self-awareness they measure what they see against the ideal. Things are not the way they ought to be. Not the way they could be. Or should be. Something’s wrong.
There’s a fork in every road. Will I give in, and accept the world as I find it, conforming to it’s irregularities and inconsistencies and inevitabilities? Will I remain a victim? Or will I determine to be an agent of change, and find the resources I need to become fully alive to my potential and contribute to fulfilling the promise that is me? Which will it be?
And does it even matter?
That youth pastor believes that it does matter. He took some heat. But there is a Matrix working against each one of those young people. And each of them is capable of overcoming.
The movie got them talking about it.
That’s a start.
More power to him.
* * * * * * *
It’s Monday morning. You are a leader.
You know about the Matrix. It’s all around you. It’s a system that has most everyone in its grip. It’s a philosophy of despair. Of hopelessness. Of aimlessness. It creates victims. It gives excuses. It robs them of life.
Its only colors are shades of gray. Its process is empty routine. It stifles spontaneity. It expects conformity. There are no options other than dull repetition of hollow drills.
There is One who cares. One who created you with a purpose. One who liberates you from the Matrix and makes you whole.
He doesn’t need Jujitsu or blazing Uzi’s or virtual reality to make the point. He is reality.
Today, on this holiday Monday morning, don’t let the Matrix define you.
Break free. Be what you were meant to be.
Neo.
New.
© Copyright Kenneth E. Kemp 2001
Special Thanks to my good friend David Belcher, owner of Rhino Media Group and creator of WisdomGram
LeaderFOCUS is a service of Good Stewardship Associates
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