Plato's Cave & The Matrix

First off, I've only seen The Matrix, haven't seen the other two and have no interest in seeing them. IMO, Keanu Reeves can't act his way out of a wet paper bag, so my interest in seeing the other movies in the trilogy is less than zero.

OK, now that I got that out of the way. The Matrix clip actually did a fairly good job in explaining Plato's allegory of the cave. Neo is the person in the cave who is cut loose from his binds -- literally detached from the Matrix pods -- and has seen the "truth" of the "reality" of the world. I put truth and reality in quotes in that these are subjective terms - after all, what is to say that what Neo will experience outside of the pod isn't just another level to the Matrix? One illusion swapped for another is still an illusion.

Would I go down the rabbit hole? I'd have taken both pills just to see what would have happened. Someone named after the demigod of sleep offering you pills? Yeah, right.

Aristotle. As Monty Python said in the Philosopher's Drinking Song, he was a "bugger for the bottle." Because I think being drunk is the only way to really understand what he was saying. I like how Aristotle said that the goal of humans is happiness, and happiness is achieved by following the means between the extremes for yourself; happiness is subjective -- what might make me happy (my mean) might be an extreme for someone else. I also recall what a favorite author of mine said about means and extremes: everything in excess, to enjoy life you need to take big bites -- moderation is for monks.

Consumer culture. You know what? I like my creature comforts. Our technology and advancements have made it so that I, who have chronic medical issues, can have a pretty damn good quality of life. It seems that both Jean Baudrillard and the guy who made the movie Baraka (spelling) think that returning to our "native" roots to live in harmony with the land will solve most or all of our ills. Well, we certainly would have a reduction in population. I find it ironic that those people who complain about our technology use that self-same technology to complain about it! The guy who made Baraka couldn't have made it without technological advancements in film, editing, and distribution.

Don't get me wrong -- if YOU want to "tune out and drop out" (paraphrasing Mr. Leary) -- be my guest. Go live with the Aborigines in the Outback. Drop off the grid. Do the zero carbon footprint thing. You have my blessing. You'll probably make a better world for your children, and I hope that you do. Since I'm not going to have kids, I could care less what happens after I shuffle off this mortal toil.

But you know what? I'm going to keep my Dish Network (cheaper than Comca$t). I'm going to keep my multiple computers (all Macs). I'm going to drive my multiple cars (we need two cars simply because of our work schedules). If I'm being blinded by a consumer reality that is separating me from "reality" (whatever that is), then so be it. At least I'm alive.

Or maybe not, since one person has calculated that there is a 20% chance that we're living in the Matrix right now. Just think, we could all be nothing but a collection of bits in someone's computer simulation that is a cross between Civilization and the Sims. Maybe the Pythagoreans are right and we're really nothing but numbers. Just remember, there are only 10 types of people who understand binary...