The Matrix as a Metaphor for Societal Change

The Matrix is my favorite movie series of all time. Not only does it kick ass, but it is a perfect metaphorical blueprint for how to enact lasting change despite insurmountable constraints from power structures.

Step 1: understand the reality you are living is a "simulation".

The way things are, are not the way things have to be. They are this way because of a system of control.

Step 2: leave the matrix

This is the part most people skip. Trying to reshape systems that you are dependent on is a losing battle. They have all the leverage.

Morpheus and crew did not petition the programs to release them from the matrix or to improve conditions within it. They severed their dependence on it entirely. They left.

In our world, what "leaving the matrix" looks like is creating means by which you can meet your basic needs without the government nor the market system.

Mutual aid networks, cooperatives, community gardens, etc.

Step 3: "fight the system"

Only after leaving the matrix and establishing a space outside it did the humans of zion jack back into the matrix and begin fighting to free others.

Only once people are at least less dependent on the current system do they have a real chance of leveraging change within it.

One key difference between this metaphor and our reality, though, is that leviathan excels at absorbing violence and political rhetoric. So fighting in those theaters would be folly.

Instead, it would be better to take a leaf out of Sun Tzu's book and utilize indirect tactics. Ie; let the lifestyle itself be the fight. Create superior modes of life and maintain mutualistic relationships with surrounding communities.

Its a slow burn effect (it has to be, otherwise the system retaliates) but over decades it could outcompete the greater encompassing system.

Step 4: Strike a "deal"

Neo did not defeat the machines...at all. He won the war, though. How? He struck a deal with them.

He handled a problem that they could not (Smith) and in exchange they released all humans who wanted to be freed and ceased hostilities against Zion.

Parallel societal structures within centralized and hierarchical power structures must be able to reach an agreement with the governmental and market entities they live within.

If they cannot, they will have no future.

They must pay their taxes, obey at least all the most important laws, and structure themselves to where this can be done while maintaining a time-rich population within them.

Complicated? Hell yes. But at least this struggle would lead somewhere unlike political and/or market-centric "solutions".

ArishMell · 70-79, M

I have not seen the film, but surely your conclusion is still a "political and/or market-centric 'solution' ", though?

CynicalSpaceMan · 26-30, M

@ArishMell not really. Centric implies that that is the core of the approach.

Whereas what im proposing uses the natural tendencies of both the market and the government but in a way that allows for "sideways movement".

This solution is more of a negotiation with these forces than an appeal to one or the other or both.

To me the difference is building a sail boat (what i propose)

Rather than casting ourselves bodily into the ocean and then praying for the wind and the water to take us where we want to be (political and market centric solutions)

TL;DR: the center of gravity of this solution is local autonomy, not politics nor the market.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@CynicalSpaceMan I think I understand what you mean, but whatever system you create it is still "political" and not intrinsically any less prone to faults than any other. Nor to people taking it over for their own ends.

Local autonomy is all very well, and works to some degree in some countries (e.g States in the USA, devolved governments in the UK) but each region still has to engage with its neighbours and the rest of the country at large, so there is a natural limit to local autonomy.