Re: The Matrix Reloaded

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

> My personal interpretation is that the "matrix" is a good metaphor for
> bourgeois ideology.  The pill that causes the character Neo to see through
> the "matrix" could be seen as analogous to Marxism.
>
> Danielle Ni Dhighe

There is also a strong Gnostic element to the film. In the Hellenistic era,
a number of religious cults emerged that combined elements of Christianity
and earlier Greek mystery rites. The most famous of them were the
Manicheans. These cults saw the real world as a combination of sin and
ignorance and darkness. Those who had "knowledge" (gnosis) would be freed
from their slavery to the material world. It was a worldview marked by
abstinence and self-abnegation. The original Matrix had something of this
insofar as the crew ate crummy food and wore what looked like thrift-shop
clothing. The latest film seems to move in the opposite direction with a
"full-blown bacchanalian rave" (from the Slant review) among the citizens
of Zion who have been liberated from their computer overlords.


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org