Entertainment11 Apr 2003 09:35 am
The Matrix is here. It’s all around us.
Confused? All will be clear on May 15th, if you choose the right pill. The red pill or the blue pill? Need some help in deciding? Look no further than this transmission (100 MB size). We managed to get this out of Zion before the computers disrupted communications.
May 15 will be a day to remember.
May 12th, 2003 at 5:41 am
One man’s hero is another man’s villain.
Why are Neo and his crew considered heroes? Does anyone wonder about that? Why free humanity to a desolate world. I’ll be Morpheus and Harry will be Neo. I won’t give the speech Morpheus gives to Neo. This how it would play out.
Charlie: Harry I’m gonna offer you two pills. One is red and the other is blue.
Harry: Ok.
Charlie: The blue pill will let you keep your early 21st century lifestyle as you know it.
You’ll still get to eat wonderful food and I predict your business will make you extremely wealthy.
Harry: That’s great. What about the red pill?
Charlie: Take the red pill and all you know goes away. You’ll spend the rest of your life wearing tattered clothes and eating gruel made of oatmeal, corn, and water.
Harry: That sucks.
Charlie: I know, but I’ll train you, so that you’ll have super powers while inside the Matrix, and we’ll wage a war against the machines to free Humanity.
Harry: You mean I have to wear tattered clothes and eat gruel for the rest of my life?
Charlie: Yeah, but..you’ll be helping us free humanity.
Harry: I don’t know. I wonder if the rest of humanity will cherish a freedom that was handed to them. A freedom that we shed our blood for. A freedom that they probably don’t want. How precious is freedom when it is handed to you freely? No toil or sacrifice to make freedom more precious. Will our blood that we spilt in the Matrix be as precious to them as it is to us. Will they remember the names and sing songs of the saviors who lost their lives in freeing them? Is it possible for us to instill in them this preciousness?
Charlie: In time it might.
Harry: Hell no. I’ll take the blue pill. You can wage your hopeless war without me.
(Harry takes blue pill)
Years later humanity if freed from the Matrix. Harry joins the bandwagon of liberals who complain about eating oatmeal, corn, and water gruel. They also criticize the methods used by Charlie and his “freedom fighters” in freeing humanity. Their main complaint is the number of innocents killed in the Matrix, namely the police officers who were just doing their jobs. There must have been a better way to resolve that problem. Maybe they should have used stun guns. Further “Monday Morning Quarterbacking” is done by the liberals, but life goes on in the desolate free world of humanity.
May 12th, 2003 at 2:03 pm
wassup charlie! it’s good to hear from you. i thought your scenario was funny, however, it doesn’t run parallel to the war with Iraq.
1) the u.s. is the most powerful country with the most powerful military in the world. Iraq is a tiny country with a virtually non-existent military. on the other hand, morpheus and his band are a rag-tag group of rebels. your analogy doesn’t hold water because the u.s. is certainly not a rag-tag group of underdogs, and Iraq is not this power supreme–in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
a better analogy is the matrix as the federation and morpheus and his bunch as the rebels. neo is analagous to luke skywalker as the one.
2) though harry might very well be a bleeding heart liberal, he is certainly not one in your scenario. Actually, you’d be the one considered the liberal, or more appropriately the radical revolutionary–you’re the one who brought radical change to the lives of the people, not harry. Harry would actually be the reactionary conservative, looking back fondly on the days past.
the thing with bush and iraq, is that yes, bush may have liberated the people from saddam’s regime. that could be very good, and if everything turns out well, people won’t care if bush was unable to establish links between iraq and terrorists or uncover wmd; still, even if all goes well in iraq, bush has turned the u.s. into the aggressor, which might have some negative diplomatic ramifications–e.g., North Korea. on the other hand, if bush fails to do a good job in ushering in a more humane, u.s.-friendly regime, the whole war will be a rot. There’s a good possibility that an islamic fundamentalist regime will take over and turn iraq into a true safe haven for terrorists.
3) Is it worth losing the semblance of a comfortable life in exchange for a not so great “real” life? That depends on the stakes. If there is no ultimate, eternal meaning to life, then I’d choose the blue pill. Why toil for liberation if you’re going to end up dying and rotting? Isn’t it better to enjoy life because in that scenario reality is only an ephemeral blip on the radar screen of eternity. It only makes sense to take the red pill if there are ultimate and eternal consequences to one’s actions.
May 12th, 2003 at 5:15 pm
Well Hume, I wasn’t trying to make any kind of political statement. I was just using the material on this website to create a funny parody of the Matrix. It just so happaned that I used something Harry said.
If they are not liberal, what catergory do they fall under for supporting non-lethal ways to stop people in the Matrix?
It’s obvious that I am not a heavy weight when it comes to politics like you. I am thankful that you are not like the ultra liberals who like to belittle laymen. You atleast pointed out where I made a few mistakes. You didn’t use “big words” to try to confuse me, nor did you call me a product of conservative American news media propaganda. You also did not try to feed me some liberal garbage about being brainwashed by the American media.
I watch CNN for news so what? Somebody explain to me why everytime the Israelis and the Palestinians make some progress to peace, it seems like the Hamas come in and blow up some cafe. Ofcourse Sharon’s gonna retaliate. If I’m not mistaken, he used to train troops for Israel’s Unit 101. I think it was created specifically to combat terrorism in Israel. That’s probably why he’s uses such extreme measures.
Isreael: Let’s have peace.
Palestine: Ok.
Hamas: Ok time to blow up a cafe.
Israel: For blowing up our cafe, we will now go in a punish suspected Palestinian terrorist.
Hamas: We blew up the cafe because there were enemy combatants there. We are justfied.
News Media: Only people killed were women and children who were eating lunch there.
Then the cycle starts all over again. I guess I’m over simplifying the problems there.
As for the red and blue pill debate…..we are comparing a comfortable life with crappy life of wearing tattered clothes, no sunlight, and eating oatmeal, corn, and water gruel. That’s more than just a “not so great ‘real’ life.” It sucks.
I’m no philosopher, so I won’t get into a debate on “the meaning of life.” I will say this, I would rather have my decendants be responsible for their actions in a world where they have a chance at a good life, instead of a desolate world. The human’s aren’t really slaves to the machines. It’s more like a symbiotic relationship. It’s not like the world of Skynet and the Terminators. The machines are not out to wipe out humanity.
Oh yeah and I don’t like bleeding heart liberals. Mainly because most of the ones I meet do exactly what I typed out above.
May 13th, 2003 at 9:59 am
charlie:
I wasn’t trying to make any kind of political statement. I was just using the material on this website to create a funny parody of the Matrix.
hume:
you succeeded, it was funny as usual. I was being dense when I jumped on you–sorry about that buddy. I just want you to know that it was all in good fun.
charlie:
It’s obvious that I am not a heavy weight when it comes to politics like you . . . Somebody explain to me why everytime the Israelis and the Palestinians make some progress to peace, it seems like the Hamas come in and blow up some cafe. Ofcourse Sharon’s gonna retaliate. If I’m not mistaken, he used to train troops for Israel’s Unit 101. I think it was created specifically to combat terrorism in Israel. That’s probably why he’s uses such extreme measures.
hume:
I don’t know, you sound like you’ve captured the nuances of the palestinian/israeli crisis quite well. To be honest, I don’t know an awful lot about politics, just what I’ve picked up here and there. But, as you know, I do love to argue–you being one of my earliest sparring partners.
charlie:
I am thankful that you are not like the ultra liberals who like to belittle laymen. You atleast pointed out where I made a few mistakes. You didn’t use “big words” to try to confuse me, nor did you call me a product of conservative American news media propaganda. You also did not try to feed me some liberal garbage about being brainwashed by the American media.
hume:
i don’t consider myself a liberal. i’m also not one of those stridently anti-war people. I’m pretty much agnostic on the issue–both sides have some good points. it could turn out well or very badly. i guess i’ll jump on the bandwagon of the winner once the winners have been decided–that sounds wrong–wait, I disavow what I just said.
Yeah, I agree that some liberals like to muddle the issue with unnecessary jargon, a smug self-righteousness, and a lack of hard evidence, but the same could be said of those on the far right. There are a few good people from both camps, though I tend to believe that most of the good people are somewhere in between.
Charlie:
I would rather have my decendants be responsible for their actions in a world where they have a chance at a good life, instead of a desolate world. The human’s aren’t really slaves to the machines. It’s more like a symbiotic relationship.
Hume:
I agree with you on that. Well, I hope you are doing well my friend. Maybe, if you get a chance, you can come up to Chicago–and I’ll take you around town.
May 15th, 2003 at 2:44 am
I just got back from watching Matrix Reloaded. No spoilers here. Let me tell you….if you want to see Matrix Revolutions, just go rent “The Thirteenth Floor.”
If you’ve watched Reloaded and have seen the end of “The Thirteenth Floor” you’ll see what I mean.
May 15th, 2003 at 1:49 pm
i saw it yesterday too. did you like it charlie?
better or worse than the first?
May 16th, 2003 at 11:18 am
I enjoyed the movie. It was great until the end.
Right at the end, I felt like I got kicked in the balls.
Did you see the Revolutions Trailer at the end of the credits? Soem people said that there was a trailer, but I think they really saw a farmer milking a cow with a big dollar sign on it.
May 16th, 2003 at 12:24 pm
no, i didn’t stick around that long. i left the movie feeling really down for some reason. i’ll explain after other people had a chance to watch the movie.
i’m interested in people’s take on it.
May 17th, 2003 at 10:32 pm
Charlie and Hume are my idols.
May 21st, 2003 at 12:48 pm
hey chris-
make it to california okay?
June 7th, 2003 at 5:10 am
Sooo many azn women… so little time…
um, yeah… I’m back in Cali right now, until the Air Force finds me.