The Matrix Manifesto

This was my personal response to Mass Communications and the final assignment we were asked to complete for the course. I was inspired to create this one night after re-watching The Matrix. That movie had been a theme for me all though the course and indeed so far all through University. This piece of writing started, like most of my writing, from feverish scribbling of an idea that enveloped my mind though threatened to disappear. This being a personal reflection I suppose it wasn't originally meant to be published and seems to be more aimed at my professor and possibly my fellow students. None the less I shall post it here as a recollection of this writing endeavour, should I ever lose track of it on my computer. As media can occasionally be somewhat troublesome in that regard.
This is probably the longest complete essay type reflection I've ever written. Though I still maintain that it is "As long as necessary and as short as possible." -Ian Reilly. Perhaps, "As Simple as Possible but not Simpler." -Einstein


Grant Tabler

Ian Reilly
AHSS 1060 Mass Communication
December 1^st, 2009

The Matrix Manifesto

I believe The Matrix is the single greatest media analysis and portrayal in a movie that I have seen. I seem to constantly inference things to it or quote from it. Since writing about the matrix was the first real writing I did for Mass Communications, I think it fitting that the last writing I do for this class should continue the theme. I saw it again recently, and every time I see it I see different things. I now try to decipher its semiotics. I see themes and symbols that I did not recognise earlier.

First, before I begin talking about The Matrix, semiotics, and a demonstration of what I have learned, I would like to make a comment about this course. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course, it is the most analysis and critical thinking I have ever had to do. I would like to thank Ian Reilly and Paul Vermeersch for this. I do not know what I will face in the coming years, but I cannot help but hope that there are more courses as fantastic as this one.

Now I must correct something I wrote in McLuhan and the Matrix. Morpheus is not McLuhan, nor is Neo the playboy interviewer. They were for that inference but the example did not look at the big picture, it was not really comprehensive enough. This leads me to a major theme in this course.

One of the biggest things I have learned from this course is an interesting sentiment. Whenever you think you have everything figured out, take a step back and marvel at your ignorance, upon seeing a larger picture.

I would like to outline a bit of how I now see the matrix. I can now draw parallels from the movie and its concepts, to our class. Now the movie has gained yet another meaning for me, I now see it as the journey this mass communications course has taken us on. It is a journey through the media matrix. To illustrate the connections I will attempt to move through the course and the movie from the beginning, in a somewhat semiotic analysis.

We, the media studies class, are the new crew members to the Nebakanezer. We are like the newly freed neo. We have been freed from many of our conceptions of reality, and are able to see more of the real world. Though we are still getting used to the feeling and cannot quite understand all of what is going on yet.

Our media mentor is Morpheus. From him we learn about the boundaries of the matrix and have our minds freed. To our class this was Ian Reilly. Our media autobiography was our first chance to show how we understand the matrix. The assignment was like the initial sparing match between Neo and Morpheus. The first major assignment, the blogs, was the Jump program. That is where we, like neo, saw that despite our revelations we were still just learning.

The term paper was the equivalent to storming the Agent stronghold. We had time to gather information and think about what we would do. We like Neo’s access to “guns, lots of guns” (The Matrix) we had access to information, lots of information. Just as Neo used his training programs, we had hours devoted to training of our own, though we had to spend more hours reading than Neo had to. Our training programs were Klosterman, Berger, Mccloud, to name a few. We used this training to fight through the endless challenge of assaulting this fortress, fighting with the ideas and concepts. We were trying to make a stand, trying to prove something.

Trinity, Tank, Mouse, and the other crew members were our support. They manifested themselves in the classmates and others we discussed concepts with, the course Wiki, the lectures, even outside sources of information. These outside influences all made the journey easier.

Our goal on that assault, albeit a term paper, was to convince someone of something. For us it may have been to free our professor and indeed anyone reading the essay. We tried to free them from the captivity of the manipulative agents of industry and their preconceptions. Forcing others to question what things mean, and how they mean.

Although for those of us who recognised it, we were also trying to convince ourselves. We wanted to know that we could do this. That we could meet this monumental task and not only survive, but triumph over it. Regardless of my mark on that paper, I will still be more proud of it than any essay I have ever written. It was the only essay in which I have challenged concepts in such a way. Completing that essay changed the way I thought about essays. It was a bit like when Neo actually fought with an agent. He fought knowing that he could, and probably should, run. At which point Morpheus says, “He’s beginning to believe.” (The Matrix)

The agent shooting down Neo’s helicopter, our rhetoric, was a moment of realization. Though it could easily be the class getting their marks back, only to see that our arguments are still flawed; I prefer to think of it differently. I see it as the realization that our medium, the blogs will not last forever. It is not enough to win the war on its own. We are forced to realize that that medium cannot be our only weapon. We would then see that our writing has power, that given the right medium we can change things. We would realize from this that we have the ability to free others. However, like Neo, we do not realize our full potential at that point.

So we continue fighting preconception and continue learning. Our minds are all the freer for it. Until we are writing our blog posts and we realize these truths. We begin to step away from the social constructs that trap our minds. We start to see more of the world as it is. More and more we recognise semiotics in our daily lives. We begin to watch for video news releases and PR schemes. We start to realize that this total media immersion is all consuming. Those of the class that did not understand McLuhan’s sentiments at first may well realize them now. We see things, more and more things the longer we look.

McLuhan however is a matrix symbol as well. For the purposes of my examples here, I see him as the first One. Morpheus mentions him, and talks of how he realized the truths around him and began to “free the first of us” (The Matrix). Since his life ended, the world has continued to search for the next One to take his place. As we have learned more we begin to see that someday perhaps one of us will become such a person ourselves. We are even told by Morpheus that we may have the capacity to be this One eventually.

Then, we start to realize we have hegemony. We can lead; we have power, and knowledge. We see the plight of media restrictions like the prospect of net neutrality on the horizon. We begin to become more like activists, to rally ourselves to a cause. We start fighting these organizations, we start battling for what we see as right. We start fighting the agents.

And after that, perhaps long after this course is done, we will see what true power we really have. We will see that we can defeat these agents; because of our combined strength. Like the innumerable anomalies that pulsed through Agent Smith before he was destroyed. Our power is that of knowledge. We have the power to rally others to us, and destroy that which plagues and exploits others for its own gain.

Then we will use our hegemony to “show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries” (The Matrix) But like Neo I cannot predict the future, I do not know how it will turn out. Though I suppose it is really my job to help shape that.

It reminds me of the last line in the matrix. “Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.” (The Matrix) Neo is no longer talking to the person on the other end of that phone; suddenly he is talking directly to the audience. He is doing this because, we are in the matrix. It is kind of funny that the movie puts the dawn of the matrix near the start of the 21^st century, because that cannot be far from the date of our own matrix becoming what it is today.

This whole sentiment probably sounds a bit odd but I see it as a McLuhan-like viewpoint about media immersion. We are controlled by machines though perhaps not with cords plugged directly into our brains, yet, the effect is still there. I am not attempting to say that we are “dominated” by our media overlords or that the PR industry shapes our every move. I am actually referring to something simpler. Our actions are shaped by our media because we allow them to think for us. We allow them to experience life for us.

Someone once said to me that computers are a self imposed form of slavery. Though the statement is a bit extreme I can see the connection. I think people can become slaves to any such electronic device, like phones. When you change things in your life to accommodate this technology, it is dictating your actions. We become caught in the routines of our instant world. We get things done automatically, and we begin to rely on them being done automatically, like the Royksopp video “Remind Me”.

Media scholars are people; who like neo upon becoming the one, will see and understand the matrix that surrounds them. He understands that there is no need to destroy the matrix. That is because it can be changed so that things can coexist. One needs a balance of freedom and control. However, at this point in our media scholarly lives, our class is not quite so self-aware. Our view now is somewhere between that end point, and where we began in this course.

The beginning, or near beginning, viewpoint was that of Neo upon first awakening to find the human harvesting fields. To see billions of others immersed in that warm liquid goo of media immersion. We saw these people as trapped and controlled, “dominated” by such media. “You look around, what do you see? Businessman, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, the very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do they are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy.” (The Matrix)

One day in class I looked at people in such a way. Though I did not realize what I was seeing. I sat in class listening to a lecture about how McLuhan saw us as fish immersed in the waters of media. Many of the students in the class did not quite grasp the concept. As I looked around I saw these people on facebook, msn, checking email, etc. I just saw it as ironic at the time, that these people who did not quite understand the concept were living it. I think that was the moment when I first saw the true media effects model, though I did not realize it at the time.

Because of this course I can see at least a small portion of this matrix we live in. For this I would like to thank my teacher, Ian Reilly, for this clarity. Though just as I am able to see this matrix, so too are others oblivious to it. The majority of the people who watch that movie probably see no connection to their lives, or the media they consume. Though many people who buy all the latest iTechnology or who delay their real lives for their digital lives probably do not see such connections either.

I understand now that these media that affect our lives are also a major part of our lives. One cannot simply stereotype media as dominating, or demonize corporations as evil entities bent on the suffering of all. We need these things in the society we have created. However, what could change are our mentalities. Our ways of seeing as John Berger might put it.

We can use media without being controlled by it. We need more awareness of the technology trends however; moving away from what McLuhan called the “rear view mirror view of their world” (Playboy 56). We have to realize that we cannot have technology dictate our actions and schedules. We cannot continue on a path that will lead to the simplification of our lives to the point where we are no longer experiencing anything. For then the lives would no longer be ours.

“I say your civilization because when we started thinking for you, it really became our civilization.” (The Matrix) Said the Media construct. More and more we seem to be developing media to cater to this need for automation. We are building for ourselves an instant world. However the logical conclusion of this is not a place that I think we want to be. I think that most people are not stopping to analyze this in the way that our media class has. People do not have time to put such analysis or critical thinking into it.

I believe that we have a duty, the duty of all those of us that study media. The duty of all the awakened, those living in our real world; those who are beginning to see this water of media that we are swimming in. Our task is now to free others. We must break others from their self subjugating way of seeing and thinking. We must make it our mission to free as many minds as we can. We must allow others to see the waters they swim in. Though they may be immersed, connected to this network, connected to this digitalized life, so too were we.

This is kind of like Klosterman’s sentiment about born-again Christians, upon completion of this course we seem to be a bit like born-again media scholars. We now must strike out and begin enlightening others. It is now our turn to free others, and allow everyone to see the matrix that is all around them. We need to give people, as McLuhan put it, “knowledge of the way media work as environments.” (McLuhan 26)

-30- 


Works Cited

McLuhan, Marshall.The Medium is the Massage. Penguin: 1967. Print.

McLuhan, Marshall. "The Playboy Interview: Marshall Mcluhan." Playboy Magazine. Eric            Norden. March 1969. Print.

The Matrix. Dir. Wachowski Brothers. Warner Bros. Pictures, 1999. DVD.