Re: Reloaded with plastic pea pellets; a rant for Jim

You were thinking of two passages from the Bible: the first describes
Satan as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (James? Not sure),
the second warns along the lines that "if we bite and devour one
another, be careful that we do not consume one another" (I think this is
Paul warning against divisions in the church).

You have some pretty interesting ideas about the film and there does
seems to be a weird connection between Neo and the machines at the end
-- he was able to short circuit the sentinels and he wasn't even in the
Matrix. There's no question that this world is a big matrix to the W.
Brothers: everything you describe along with grocery stores and utility
companies and everything else forms a large system that needs us to
survive, and upon which we are dependent for our survival. It dictates
how we see the world and determines our desires, expectations, beliefs,
etc.

Now, the critical theory tradition informing the social criticism behind
the Matrix (which I identify with Baudrillard) argues that "instrumental
reason" is behind all this -- instrumental reason is reason employed
with the goal of dominating nature and other people. Now, if we use
reason to critique reason, we're still caught in the system, because
reason always manages to turn itself to instrumental purposes. So we
need to escape from reason somehow to escape the system, and I think
this is where the gnostic/mystical/religious imagery behind the films
come into play.

Some of the reading I've been doing lately (Habermas: _The Philosophical
Discourse of Modernity_) describes this whole problem with reason as
being circumvented one of two ways. The first is Nietzche's way, which
subverts reason with sheer will, with power. Reason is ultimately a
leech draining the efficacy of power, so reason is something to be used
and disposed of at will. The second way is to maintain a "performative
contradiction" -- critique reason using reason even though you know
you're undermining the very basis of your critique. Habermas suggests
that the dissemination of information into highly specialized fields
creates a bunch of independent logics, so that reason can't be looked at
as just one thing any more. While I think this may be true, I still
think all these independent logics can still serve, and do still serve,
instrumental purposes, even if they often disagree with one another.

The film seems to wind up offering two alternatives -- either we all
live dependent upon a machine that dominates everyone which is
controlled by human beings, or we are dependent upon a machine that
dominates everyone controlled by an independently thinking machine
(which I suspect represents instrumental reason acting independently --
isn't that what our system will wind up doing if it gets big and strong
enough?). Cipher, in the first film, saw this as the only available
options and chose to betray humanity for the sake of a nice comfy pod
and a pleasant simulated reality. I suspect Neo will come to see this
and will find a way out of the mess. It'll be interesting to see how
this gordian knot is untied. I very much suspect you're right -- Neo
and the machine will be very closely identified at some point. If he's
really a Christ figure I think he'll have another sacrifice to make,
maybe involving his human identity for the machine, which he then shuts
down.

Jim

Yocum Daniel GS 21 CES/CEOE wrote:

>I guess the whole Priory of Sion thing with its attendant notable
>academicians, scientists, philosophers, artists, and politician etc is the
>Wachowski bros way of inferring that this world our world is a matrix a big
>Gnostic matrix. Of course this view is based on a dichotomy that I find
>false but the existentialist out there might grab hold of it as an exit out
>of this supposed absurdity and fear. The 'soul' or whatever has to be break
>through the 'surface' tension. Again this presupposes a dichotomy to an
>exclusive extent. The apparent dichotomy only arises when the will
>dominates everything else, when it refuses to stoop. Of course one can
>always will to stoop. If the new flying faster than a speeding bullet
>supermen want to will beyond then it all becomes absurd. It is just another
>matrix with new masters since we don't create ourselves despite the claims
>to self recreation. There is a fixity to it all that some refuse to see. I
>prophecy that Neo will some how break through this fixity in Revolutions but
>then everyone will be in his matrix but if everyone makes there own matrix
>then they might as well just stay in their copper top pods since that is
>where it will all end up. The worm Ourobouros only eats its own tail
>because it has an insatiable appetite, it does not stoop. I think it has
>been said that if you go about seeking to devour don't be surprised that you
>too are devoured and something else about a lion walking about devouring
>things, I think you know what I am talking about Jim. What? Does this mean
>that Daniel would choose to live in the matrix? No, I am the Matrix, the
>nexus and so are you, at least for now, another brick in the wall John O. I
>have a seat at the table with all you fine people, now pass the meat and
>potatoes. Maybe after dinner we can go sit in the courtyard and watch the
>sunset and have some great conversation?
>Daniel
>
>

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Received on Wed May 21 11:39:10 2003