The Matrix & Philosophy

Shanelle Maldonado                                                                                           June 4, 2012
                                     

“One ought to be suspicious of all forms of authority, one ought to be suspicious of all forms of obedience that requires any kind of blind submission to authority” – Dr. Cornell West.

                One of the lessons given from The Movie The Matrix comes from an idea by Dr.Cornell West. It isn't always safe to fall into the command of an authority figure because they might not always be the good guys. Especially when someone would feel obligated to obey someone or something that doesn't allow them to investigate before they follow.  In the movie The Matrix there are a lot of instances where authority plays a big part. Morpheus, the oracle, the agents, and the machines are all authority figures in the movie.  Whether they're the good guys or bad guys they still require some kind of obedience. Neo would be the one in most cases to either obey or not. "I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life." - Neo

         Sometimes people get influenced or intimidated by people who have more power or who are in an authority position. They just obey because they’re supposed to.   In Neo’s case he was supposed to be the chosen one. Everyone told him he was the one. "Let me tell you why you are here. You are here because you have the gift." - Morpheus But he never believed it. The oracle would tell him situations that he was going to face like having to decided who’s life he would save, his or Morpheus.  ”You’re going to have to make a choice. In one hand, you will have Morpheus life. In the other hand, you will have your own. One of you is going to die, which one, will be up to you."- Oracle In him not believing these things would actually happen, he ended up facing each circumstance in the face and eventually had to make a decision that was predicted.  In this case the oracle would be considered an authority figure because she did have power and she did know something about him that he didn’t. Neo didn’t believe her; he didn’t go along with what she said just because she knew something about him that he didn’t. He didn’t feel obligated to blindly submit to her because he still wasn’t sure of anything that was going on.

    Authority the power or right to give orders, make decisions and enforce obedience. The Milgrams experiment was a study that was done where they took a learner and a tester. The learner was in this room and was said to be tied up to these wires where electricity went through. The tester asked questions and if the answer was wrong they would shock them. For each incorrect answer the volts would get higher. Its highest point was 450 volts. The testers didn't know that they were actually the ones being tested. After a few wrong answers and shocks some reached their turning point and decided to stop the study. They heard the learner asking to get out, but they had the pressure of authority watching and most kept on. The purpose of this experiment was to see if humans would disregard their morals under the influence of authority. It proved that most of the tester did do this. They kept on shocking the learner because the authority figure told them to. They felt powerless to the situation and they dis valued their morals. In the movie The Matrix the characters are forced to submit to the machines in order to get into the matrix. They have to get plugged into this robot like machine’ and they’re under their control. The machines are programed to keep the mind alive but the body is dead. The matrix is almost a reality because if you get killed in there you die physically.  If your mind dies so does your body.  So the characters are forced to fall for it because they really don’t know what’s better and what reality is. "We are trained in this world to accept only what is rational and logical. Have you ever wondered why?"- Morpheus They blindly fell under submission to an authority figure.

     Morpheus was another authority figure, he was the top dog. In the movie he was the leader of this team. This team was after saving the city but they couldn’t do it without Neo. So when they found him they needed him to listen and understand their mission and his role in it. Morpheus was the guy who would tell them what needed to be done and how important he was. But Neo didn’t believe this either. Neo knew about the matrix but he wasn’t sure what it really was and he never considers himself as the superman who would save it. Morpheus pushed him the whole time trying to convince him of his purpose but Neo never agreed. "I've been watching you, Neo and I want to meet you. I don't know if you're ready to see what I to show you, but unfortunately we have run out of time. And they're coming for you, Neo and I'm not sure what they're going to do" -Morpheus

   The agents in the movie were created to protect the matrix and to create a perfect world for the people within the matrix. But they weren’t that great. These agents also had authority toward Neo and his group but they weren't respected. They wanted to kill off Morpheus team before they took over the matrix and freed it in a way. The agents tried to bully Neo and tried to intimidate him to give him. "You are going to help us, Mr. Anderson, whether you want to or not." agent Smith. They took advantage of their authority and expected Neo to obey because he was intimated but he wasn't so he didn't submit. Sometimes authority figures force one to submit. It’s hard to go against them because there has to be some kind of consequence that we really don’t want to know. But if we really feel that it isn’t the right thing to obey we just have to follow Neos example.

   "I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up." -Morpheus. When the characters in The Matrix plugged into the machines their bodies went to sleep while their minds were out in the matrix. In our world we can compare this to a dream. When we sleep and dream we can also look at this as a way of falling into authority. We blindly fall into obedience to our dream world, leaving our bodies in the physical world.  But in the matrix they were able to control what happened and what they did in it. Lucid dreaming is a dream that your aware of and can control. You can tell your mind to put your body to sleep and little by little you'll fall into this sleep where you can make your own dream up. Dreams are part of the job to store you memories.  "When people sleep their bodies are perfectly still and that’s when every area of the brain comes to life." -Documentary. That's when your dream world gets moving. "The blood flow to the brain doubles because of all the movement in our brains. So the brain sends out signals to the spine and kind of paralyzes the limbs temporarily." -Documentary.  When someone has a lucid dream they realize that it’s a dream and can start to control it. There’s a mask that has been invented to senses REM sleep and flashes to determine it. The purpose of the flash is to let the dreamer know that they're dreaming, but it doesn’t wake them. “Managing your dreams maybe the only chance given to influence what’s normally out of control… the brain.” –Researcher James Shelton

   As humans we often find ourselves in situations where we feel like things could be better or even work in a different way and sometimes reality isn’t the best place to be at the moment. Everyone comforts themselves in different ways. During these times we can fall under the influence of others, especially authority figures.  We follow the rules and go along because we are either afraid or we just don’t know better. As the days progress authority is getting more control and we continue to be passive consumers of society. We sleep on our rights and ignore our morals. We trust men called barbers while they put blades on our throats, people called dentist put drills and sharp objects in our mouths, doctors etc. “listen to me, neo, you have to trust us.” Trinity. There are so many instances where we blindly submit to authority and we barely notice.

art

David Alfaro Siqueiros painting is of a chinese woman stripped,tied up and shot in the head. This painting was the monumentalized martyr, her massive, sculptural body fills the closely cropped composition. Siqueiros was born in Chihuahua City in 1896. Between 1908 and 1911 he studied at the Franco-English College in Mexico City, an institution run by the Marist Fathers. Siqueiros had an early Catholic education.
By  fifteen Siqueiros was already involved in artistic studies and political activism. In 1911 he was the leader of a student strike at the San Carlos Academy. The strike lasted six months and ended in complete victory for the students. I chose this painting because it caught my eye. The way the woman is positioned shows that there was some kind of violence involved. It was interesting to me because there are a lot of crazy unknown things going on in this world and things that went on. I felt like this painting opened up my eyes cause i started to think outside the box. I started to think about all those innocent women who were killed and tortured. Siqueiro chose subjects that dealt with polemical issues of his time. His Artistic career was repeatedly interrupted by his fervent political activity and imprisonments. He caught in the revolutionary army during the Mexican revolution in 1910-20, then organized a mineworkers unions. After that in the late 1930s he joined the republicans to fight against forces in Spanish civil war then finally as an ardent Stalinist, he helped orchestrate an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate leon Trotsky in 1940.

outline

Blanche and stanley can both be categorized as drunks in this play. They both use alcohol as way to escape  their "problems". In the play balm he seems to be a stuck up older woman who's disappointed in how her younger sister is living. She puts on a front in the beginning of the play acting she's this pure innocent sober woman. But after a while stanly finds things out about her. And turns out that shes the total opposite of what she said she was. She drinks a lot when she's nervous or stressed out or about to get caught in a lie
     Stanly is another drunk who drinks all the time. He has a bad temper randomly throws tantrums. He smashes things around and gets physical with his wife Stella. She Excepts  him and doesn't see anything wrong with this but her sister Blanche is very bother by this and it gives her more reason to look down at Stella. Stanley is upset that blanch is even there and this is mostly why he has these tantrums and drinks a lot more. stanly and blanche seem to comfort themselves with alcohol and they use that to cover up in stead of talking about the situation. When blanche starts to talk about something important or is almost getting caught in a lie she gets nervous and asks for a drink to get out of her little chaotic problem. Stanly drinks all the time but when he's stress and upset , after a tantrum, he drinks.
   Both of these characters use drinking as a comforter and they realize how the problems escalate instead of resolving. Sanely had ends up putting his foot down and gets rid of Blanche. Even though it hurts his wife a lot they all know that it's the best thing they can do for everyone.

blog# 4 streetcar named desire

My first claim is that Stanley seems like a rough sarcastic guy. He tends to have a careless vibe in a way and his ego plays a part in that. Blanche "no i rarely touch it" Stanley "some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often" (18). It looks like he's trying to let her know that he's not stupid and he knows that she does drink and she doesn't need to put on an act. Blanche was talking to stanley about her looks and he told her a situation that he was in with a girl who said she was the glamorous type and Stanley said "So what?" (26) This shows the careless side of him, like he doesn't have any interest in that and he knew the girl was trying to be stuck up so his ego came out to try and hurt the girl or shut her down with what he said.

My second claim is that Blanches name means pure, white and innocent but her personality contradicts that. She seems like a really loose and easy woman. In the play she asks stanley to help her button up the back of her dress and she says things like, "...that was why, when you walked in here last night, i said to myself, My sister has married a man."(27) I think this was a flirtatious move in a way. After this she sees her sister and tells her "I called him a little boy and laughed and flirted. yes i was flirting with your husband!"(30) She tells her sister that she flirted with her husband, honestest is always good but just the fact that she did flirt shows that she's not the innocent type of woman. She also asks to drink. Blanche "...open you pretty mouth  and talk while i look around for some liquor"(10). She just seems like a drunk and a liar from the previous quote because she tells Stanley that she doesn't drink and in this quote she's looking for some.

Final draft

Shanelle Maldonado                                                                                       March 21, 2012

                                                                   My Goal

Little sisters, yay! There’s always a pretty painted picture when it comes to beings a big sister. Some make it seem perfect; others make it seem like the worst thing in the world. I would say it's the most complicated, fun, frustrating journey to take. It's not that bad but dealing with "you’re not the boss of me" makes it a little less tolerable. I enjoy being an older sister to my little people but sometimes it gets serious and I think I’ve been handling it the wrong way. So my Goal is to figure out a way to get closer to my sister and grow a better relationship with her.
       I have two younger sisters and one younger brother. Chalynne is 12, Shania is 6 and Shawn is 5. Chalynne has hit an age where she knows it all and she thinks she's already to mature for the park and toys r us. She gets embarrassed by anything and she has to look cute with everything she does. This irks me a whole lot. I feel like she's growing up a little too fast and I'm not ready for it. When i was 12 I was into pony tails, sneakers, jeans and a t shirt. She's into leggings (super tight jeans ), a fancy shirt and her hair has to be perfectly styled. This doesn't bother me as much because she could just really be into fashion and looking nice in general. But it's just how she comes about it that worries me and I always react in an aggressive way.

My dad is over protective with me and I feel like that kind of transferred over and I'm just doing the same to her. My sister has a little attitude and it bothers me because she doesn’t really respect my authority, I'm not her mother but I don’t try to be, I just want to be the perfect big sister. It's hard to discipline and be kind at once when she's constantly trying to be your older sister. I have to find a way to be loving but still able to discipline. She doesn’t act her age and I feel like she's looking for attention in the wrong places. I need to start giving her the support and attention she's looking for but it's hard when she comes out her mouth and try's to act up. She's 12 but she tries to be 16. She’s always going around trying to impress.

            I want to be able to have a close bond with her and still have the kind of relationship where she trusts me but always respects my authority. I know that I have to work hard at this goal because she does look up to me so I have to not only grow a better relationship with her but I have to make sure my life style is appropriate and right so that she can have an idea as to where she should go with her life and what to bringing and take out of hers. I haven’t been that great of a sister and I have to admit. I’ve been into my own thing and trying to get out and have fun I feel like I abandoned her and haven’t fit the “big sister” title.

My goal is to try my best and win her back. She’s 12, a 7^th grader in Entrada academy. Whenever I pick her up from school all I see are little girl showing off skin, hair dyed, piercing in places I didn’t know existed. It bothers me because these are the people she is around most of her time and they aren’t a good influence at all. I know its hard at that age to stay “innocent” or good. Per pressure sucks and the kids are mean. I was bullied in middle school so I know what it must be like for her. But I didn’t have an older sister to run to or to talk to and ask questions. She does! But it’s like she doesn’t, and it hurts because I know she needs me.

This is extremely important to me because I know that my little sisters future will depend on her childhood, so now’s the time to make things happen for her and to protect her psychically and spiritually. I have to start talking to her more and asking her more questions to show her that I care. I know that I like to talk and I like when someone listens to me cause it just shows that there’s interest in my life and what goes on in it so I feel like asking her about her day or just randomly speaking to her more would lighten up the shade in between us and we’ll be able to become closer.

I’m scared that if  I don’t grab her now I’ll lose her to all this wildness that’s going on now with these little girls and that’s the last thing I want. I need my sister to trust me and I’m going to try everything I can to get this done. I need to pick her up from school more, take her out and invited her when I go out. So that she can see that I’m not pushing her away or it’s not that I don’t want her around I just haven’t been doing it.

Learning to be a good older sister is harder than I expected and I know she would treat our younger siblings the way I was with her so my behavior change will let her see that there’s a better way to deal with each other and work as a unit because we are all we have and it starts with me.

my goal

My goal is to be a better older sister and to get closer to my sister. I want to be able to have a close bond with her and still have the kind of relationship where she trusts me but always respects my authority. I know that I have to work hard at this goal because she does look up to me so I have to not always grow a better relationship with her but I have to make sure my life style is appropriate and right so that she can have an idea as to where she should go with her life and what to bringing and take out of hers. I haven’t been that great of a sister and I have to admit. I’ve been into my own thing and trying to get out and have fun I feel like I abandoned her and haven’t fit the “big sister” title.

My goal is to try my best and win her back. She’s 12, a 7^th grader in Entrada academy. Whenever I pick her up from school all I see are little girl showing off skin, hair dyed, piercing in places I didn’t know existed. It bothers me because these are the people she is around most of her time and they aren’t a good influence at all. I know its hard at that age to stay “innocent” or good. Per pressure sucks and the kids are mean. I was bullied in middle school so I know what it must be like for her. But I didn’t have an older sister to run to or to talk to and ask questions. She does! But it’s like she doesn’t, and it hurts because I know she needs me. This is extremely important to me because I know that my little sisters future will depend on her childhood, so now’s the time to make things happen for her and to protect her psychically and spiritually. I have to start talking to her more and asking her more questions to show her that I care. I know that I like to talk and I like when someone listens to me cause it just shows that there’s interest in my life and what goes on in it so I feel like asking her about her day or just randomly speaking to her more would lighten up the shade in between us and we’ll be able to become closer.

final draft my goals

1.     My goal is to find a career that’s for me and that I’ll be happy with
by next semester. I want to be sure of this career so that I can start
taking the classes I need and just to start moving on. I don’t want to
waste anymore time wondering and just feeling like I’m going in
circles with what I want to do. I would like to work with kids and changing
lives. I want to be part of making a difference in this world. I know
there’s a whole lot of baby steps in between but that’s why I want to
figure out what career fits me so I could get on my way to dong big
things.
2.       I know that it takes a lot of time, patience’s and dedication to get
anything good in life and that’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of
getting intimated by all the work that comes with having a good future
and career and giving up. I know that giving up shouldn’t be a option
but I feel like all the pressure will build up to frustration and ill
end up going down that road.  I think that once I figure out what
career s meant for me I’ll be a lot more motivated in getting this all
done.
3.  Finding a career that fits me is really important to me because I
don’t want to end up graduating and not going anywhere or even giving 
up and not finishing school. I don’t want a
job I want a career. I also feel that figuring out what I want to do
is important because I might be interested in other things and not
know until I start exploring.  I don’t want to waste any more time.
Tomorrow isn’t a promise I want to take advantage of as much as I can
every day.
 4.     In order to get this goal going I have to start researching and
asking questions. I need to find people who have similar interest as I
do and see what we have in common. Maybe I’ll be interested in their
career choice and will finally be able to have target to focus on and
hit.

My goal

My goal is to find a career that’s for me and that I’ll be happy with by next semester. I want to be sure of this career so that I can start taking the classes I need and just to start moving on. I don’t want to waste anymore time wondering and just feeling like I’m going in circles with what I want to do. I want to work with kids and changing lives. I want to be part of making a difference in this world. I know there’s a whole lot of baby steps in between but that’s why I want to figure out what career fits me so I could get on my way to dong big things.    I know that it takes a lot of time, patience’s and dedication to get anything good in life and that’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of getting intimated by all the work that comes with having a good future and career and giving up. I know that giving up shouldn’t be a option but I feel like all the pressure will build up to frustration and ill end up going down that road.  I think that once I figure out what career s meant for me I’ll be a lot more motivated in getting this all done.    Finding a career that fits me is really important to me because I don’t want to end up graduating and not going anywhere. I don’t want a job I want a career. I also feel that figuring out what I want to do is important because I might be interested in other things and not know until I start exploring.  I don’t want to waste any more time. Tomorrow isn’t a promise I want to take advantage of as much as I can every day.    In order to get this goal going I have to start researching and asking questions. I need to find people who have similar interest as I do and see what we have in common. Maybe I’ll be interested in their career choice and will finally be able to have target to focus on and hit.