I'll take the blue pill that looks red
Dear fellow anarchist noders,
I hate to say "anarchists" but unfortunately most red pill takers think that applies. I'm afraid the color is not quite what you think. Remember, when you ate it you were, that's right, in the Matrix.
Let's take a clip:
"Is 'The Matrix' really just a metaphor for the pop-culture society that the modern day mega-corporations have created for us? Most of us all blindly live about our mediocre lives, oblivious that the corporations are just marketing us dry. They are presenting to us all sorts of enhanced imagery to influence how we should look and behave, and we follow like sheep, making their fantasy into reality - except that this reality isn't *real*."
We have learned our phrases to answer the question:
"This references back to my node 'We are in The Matrix'. It means that I am opting-out of the popular culture created by the marketing departments of large corporations, and intend to spend my life as I see fit, regardless of the way I am told I should look and behave by prime-time sitcoms. I'm spending less time watching brain-dead television and listening to manufactured pop music, and more time using my brain to do something productive."
But how can you tell the difference between the real world and the Matrix? Isn't that Carhartt pretty much the same as Levi's or Tommy Hilfiger? How does Falafel Corporation differ from the Meat Inc.? Does your local dealer have a better set of values than tobacco companies?
Okay, I'd like to apologize if that above sounds a bit offending. All credit (upvotes) to the orginal noder jafuser. Yes, you can make the distinction but fundamentally it changes nothing. After a round of corporate evolution we will be back to square one.
I'm quite happy to buy second hand clothes, eat mostly vegeterian, do my physical training, read books (lot's of), light an enlightning joint once a while, try to boost my confidence with lame nodes with few catchphrases.
However, there's something that annoys me all the time. It's the very matrix of my essence: RELATIVISM. Am I the One who woke up by the kiss from Carrie-Anne Moss? Was I a member of the rich mob working for a respectable software company? After ten to fifteen years, will I look rather like Cher or Michael Jackson than Kylie Minogue?
Yes, the rich and famous are rather the standards of comparisons than the poor and ugly. There's always someone who's doing better than me. Bigger car, better bong; more cash, prettier girlfriend. Some has her face in a tabloid once a week. You may not be jealous to her but what about the dude who enjoys the reputation of truly intellectual among your situationist friends? That's the rat race.
The way out? Turn on the telly and flip Big Lebowski DVD into the system that was chosen for its easy-to-recycle -materials, and watch.