Blog 3: The Matrix: Utopia, Dystopia, and Realities

In class we have been comparing The Matrix and a writing by Plato called "The Allegory of The Cave". Both of them were a  metaphor for leaving an illusion and entering reality. In my opinion I think The Matrix was more accurate to the feelings humans go through when they leave an illusion. When people are told the truth you don't know how they are going to take it, so you give them a choice. You give them the choice to hear it or not and in The Matrix it was the blue pill and the red pill. Once they accept to hear it, they usually try to ignore the reality of the truth and want to go back to their illusion. In The Matrix, Neo didn't want to believe the truth and wanted to go back to the Life he was used to. Morpheus told him, he was going to show him the truth but he didn't say the truth was going to be any better. In The Allegory of The Cave, the person's eyes hurt because of the truth but in reality it hurts your brain. Your mind has a way of tricking you like if you're hungry then you eat somthing, you think your full but in reality you haven't even digested the food. Your brain is the one that is effected by the truth not your eyes. People don't want to know the truth because the truth is ugly and the illusion is comfortable. Thats why Neo was so eager to go back to the lie, his mind was so overwhelmed by the truth, so much that he passed out. Through out history the same thing has happened over and over. There was once a time when the illusion of religion ruled the world and if you didn't believe, they would simply kill you. That's a great example because people were so afraid of the truth, that they ended up doing anything to keep their illusion alive. Some people think ignorance is bliss, so they do everything possible to stay ignorant. In The Matrix a man named Cipher was tired of living in reality, so he wanted to go back to the illusion he once lived in. He made a deal with Agent Smith to betray the people living in reality, just so he could go back to living a lie. People somtimes can't except the truth, so when they know the truth, they want to try to forget about it like in Cipher's case. I remember when a friend of mine found out Santa wasn't real, she didn't want to believe the reality that he didn't exist, but until this day she leaves cookies and milk for Santa.She decided to ignore the reality and keep living in her illusion. The Matrix was more accurate because instead of  sending a threat to the ones who teach the truth like in The Allegory of The Cave, there was actually someone who acted on the treat. In life people usually don't send a threat to the ones who teach the truth, usually they just act on it. I remember in Colombia's past there lived a man named Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala and he wanted to become president to help people in need. Once he started to speak the truth about the unbalance between poor and rich, he was murdered. Once the rich started to feel uncomfortable about the reality of rich and poor, they just killed the person spreading the truth. The Matrix was more accurate because humans were used as batteries and in The Allegory of The Cave they were just slaves in a cave. In reality slaves aren't placed in a cave, they are put to work. It's more accurate because in this Capitalistic System we live in, were just like batteries. We're made to work and we're not left with time to think. The process of giving up the illusion and embracing the truth is slowed down and takes longer to realize like it took Neo time to get used to the truth. In conclusion The Matrix was more accurate to the process of giving up an illusion and excepting the truth because it is a choice if you want to know or not, people tend to want to go back to the illusion, it's your brain that has to go through the change, and the process of embracing the truth takes a long amount of time.