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.
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