I submit, for your conspiracy consideration, The Matrix – one of my all time favourite mind-blowing conspiracies. Now, I’ll admit that movie enthusiasts and college professors have ruined the metaphorical subtly of the franchise (and the third film didn’t help) but I firmly propose that The Matrix is one of the best examples of this week’s Biff Bam Pop theme… because EVERYTHING is a big fat conspiracy.
Ok, so this is a bit obvious, but literally every aspect of reality in The Matrix is designed as a giant conspiracy against humankind. There’s no greater conspiracy than misleading us to believe in a world which doesn’t exist; but worse, the machines are doing this to keep us enslaved as a source of bio-electrical energy. Since humans are born into the matrix, it is a particularly nihilistic form of manipulation and a pretty grand conspiracy.
Status is a Conspiracy.
It also seems the division of class wealth and individual prosperity or ‘status’ in the matrix, is a big conspiracy. The same issues #Occupy protesters are trying to highlight are simply part of the matrix design. Cypher, the human who betrays Zion, shows that wealthy or powerful users may have made backdoor deals with the computers to be reinstated in to the matrix.
There is also Merovingian, the rogue program who can manipulate the computers’ system to give him the ability to break the rules; he has wealth, power, and a beautiful wife (Persephone). In this way, anyone living inside the matrix (and supposedly in our world) is subject to an elaborate fantasy created by the computers, but manipulated by opportunists.
Your Ego is a Conspiracy.
Ahh, Mr. Anderson… none of us want to be a pawn living in the matrix. But even once awoken, Neo remains the victim of an elaborate conspiracy (or prophecy, if you will) which essentially sacrifices his self-determinism to benefit a higher ruling order.
Morpheus appropriates Neo to play the role of saviour, and pushes him to follow a pre-ordained path knowing that it could mean his end. In the end we learn that the machines are similarly using Neo to fulfill their own means, and destroy the human race. Just when you thought you were the chosen one, you end up being the sacrificial lamb. Even your salvation is a conspiracy.
Of course, The Matrix is not a traditional conspiracy movie; but it touches on a very real symptom of conspiracy stories: a deep sense of doubt in our most trusted elements of existence. If you feel like further shaking your foundations, I strongly recommend The Animatrix; haunted houses, sprint racing, and other random facets of reality belie more of the big fat conspiracy.
And the greatest Wachowski Brothers conspiracy of all, yet to be adequately cracked, is what powerful forces were employed to keep Speed Racer from becoming the billion dollar blockbuster it was always meant to be?!?
The powerful force of a crappy film?
We just don’t get it, we keep it copacetic, & we’ve learned to accept it, cuz we’re so pathetic, etc., etc., etc…Just know that money is the de facto shackle that keeps everyone entangled in the matrix…The biggest conspiracy there is, is that the conspiracies are talked about freely and yet the government readily allows it for public consumption to create unrest and dissension amongst the masses and then they wonder why people go off the deep end…
*Divide and conquer, known and unknown; all brought to you by Cults In Action, creating new strains of terrorist; variety: homegrown…*
But you don’t hear me though…When you see the Wachowskis you better warn your brothers about Warner Brothers, able to turn a hot dog into a bun (Larry to Lana) so now they’re ‘siblings’ i/o of ‘brothers’…