You can do anything?

I have been thinking about the moral of the story of the Matrix. It seems like it’s trying to say that we can do anything if we simply “free our minds.” I know that’s incredibly dumbed down, and if we take off with that idea, it leads to some pretty dumb places. Like, if I really can do anything, does that mean I can learn an entire language on a Thursday afternoon while I’m working two full-time jobs? Come on, really?!

Well, if you’re going full “brain off, movie on” mode, you could see it like a big pep-talk. “You can do anything you set your mind to,” you might say. I guess it kind of does works like that. But there’s something a little more interesting to grab from this whole thing if we look at it a little closer. That’s what I wanna do today. Let’s jump in. 

Let’s recap the plot of the movie. Neo is a dude who’s stuck in this place called the matrix. It’s a big video game that keeps him trapped while draining the life out of him. He realizes that this world that he has been living in isn’t actually real and gets out. He gets stronger in the real world and eventually goes back into the fake world to become superman. Was it having real-world muscles that gave him that edge, or was it something more? 

The big shift comes when Neo realizes that the world of the matrix is a tool. It’s a weapon that he can do stuff with. The machines are using it to keep people from dying of boredom, or realizing that they’re actually just machine food. But Neo can use the same tool to fight back and free other people’s minds. The world of cause and effect can be used for him, as much as it can be used against him. 

That’s the whole message, here: we aren’t helpless. The more you learn about how the world works, the more you can do what you want in it. If you know that darkness will fall in an hour, you can bring a headlamp and keep working on your car. If you know that things tend to move downhill, you can grab a sled and go somewhere a lot faster than you would just walking. And all this takes flexibility. You need to stop seeing the world as a monster with its foot on your throat, and more as a pet waiting to be tamed. 

And isn’t that basically what hope is? Is the idea of “freeing your mind” basically another way of saying we need to be optimistic? I’d say yeah, but it’s a little more tangible than that. It’s understanding that this world, this universe of cause and effect is entirely impartial. It doesn’t care much about us. The more we can learn to understand it, the more we can control it, rather than it controlling us. 

I think of this like becoming Tarzan. Life is like a big jungle. It can be scary, with animals that might try to eat us alive. Other times, it can be friendly, with gorillas that want to help us survive and thrive. The more friends we make in this jungle, the more we find it can do for us. Vines aren’t just sitting there, hanging out. We can swing from them! Sure, there will still be snakes and leopards, but we can sharpen rocks and tie them to sticks to scare them off. The more we learn and grow, the better life can become. 

Now that we have a bit of an understanding of this idea, let’s look at it in the context of the movie. The best scene to use is the famous spoon scene. Neo walks into the oracle’s office and meets a few other people that might be the one. He sits down with one kid who explains how to become the one by holding up a simple spoon. “Don’t try to bend the spoon, that’s impossible” he explains. “Only try to realize the truth: there is no spoon. Then you’ll see that it isn’t the spoon that bends, but you.” 

What the heck does that mean? Let’s break it all down, shall we? What is the spoon? Common sense would tell you that it’s a physical thing that has the power to stand in your way, like a brick wall or a school bus. But remember, this scene takes place in a giant video game, so your eyes would actually be playing tricks on you. This so-called “spoon,” is actually a big, complicated program that is designed to imitate real stuff. The things that we see aren’t actually there. 

So, for Neo to bend the spoon, he has to realize that he isn’t looking at a real thing. Him bending the spoon is more like someone trying to change the rules of Monopoly. You don’t change the rules by playing the game a different way, you change the rules by pausing the game and telling your friend “I think we should add $20 to free parking every turn.” It’s only from outside the game that you can change it. So when Neo eventually does learn to bend the spoon, it’s by opening up the matrix's “rule book,” and changing how things work.

What, then, does it mean when the kid says that the spoon doesn’t bend, but you? It’s a call for Neo to change how he sees himself in this situation. His first instinct is to see himself as a part of this world that he finds himself in, that he’s made of the same stuff as everything around him. It’s almost like he naturally tends to see himself as one of those plastic pieces on the monopoly board. But he isn’t! He’s a person with a mind that can rewrite the rules as he sees fit. This shift in identity is what changes him from an average joe into the chosen one. The more he learns to embrace the idea that he’s a mind inside of a video game, the more he is able to control that game. 

At first, it sounds a little silly to talk about. I mean, all he has to do is realize that he’s in a video game? Well, yes and no. He has to let the idea sink in. He has to really live it out in order to become the chosen one. Imagine you were really good with cars, and built one of your own from scratch. You install the brakes, test them out, and find that they work as expected. Now you know that your car will stop when you tell it to. Imagine you decided to drive that car to school to pick up your kid. You are putting some weight behind the idea that your car will stop when you tell it to. That idea is now being tested. 

In the movie, that’s what winds up being called belief. It’s taking off with what you say you know, taking something that you understand to be true in another context and adding some risk to it. Belief goes as far as putting yourself in a spot where things could be very bad for you if you’re wrong. Kind of like how Neo starts to believe that he can save Morpheus, and sets out on a mission that is otherwise seen as suicide. Everyone might have told him that he’s the one, but he has to accept the idea for himself in order for it to mean something. 

Think about it another way. What’s the opposite of belief? Denial. You could know in your heart of hearts that something is true, but ignore it anyway. Deep down, you still know that it’s true, but choose to ignore it anyway. You might know that your non-matching socks look weird, but choose to wear them anyway because you don’t feel like changing. You could know that you’re a pretty fun person to be around, but never take the chance on dating because you don’t want to face the pain if you’re wrong. It all boils down to what you do with the ideas that you think are right. 

Does this idea have anything to do with us at all, or is this just a fun movie concept? Well, I believe that it has a big impact. I see the spoon as representing the world of cause and effect. Take your job, for example. With the way the world works, it’s tempting to believe that you have to keep fighting your way up the corporate ladder. It’s tempting to believe that the best, maybe even the only, way to live life is to scramble to get better positions with better benefits and better pay. While those jobs have their perks, they don’t guarantee you everything. The question you have to ask yourself is whether or not they are fulfilling any of your personal dreams? You might be told to go get a job as a lawyer, but if all you wanted was to have a family, those long hours wouldn’t get you closer to your own goals. The pull on you to have a life that may not be the one you wanted is what the matrix is all about. Becoming the one is all about recognizing that pull and being in control of it, rather than the other way around. It’s learning how to take charge of your own life, using the tools that you didn’t realize were right there in front of you. 

Here’s my personal example. I’m basically a factory worker. I put together pieces of pipe and ship them out to construction sites. I kind of like it. I’m not on call, don’t do crazy hours, and I have enough energy to do other stuff on the side. Some of the people around me are telling me that it isn’t a great place to end up. They’re like a tide that’s pulling me in a certain direction. But this is my life, and I get to choose what I do with it. I need to shift my perspective and run with the fact that I’m in control of my own life. If they don’t like it, then that’s fine. They weren’t really an obstacle to begin with. 

I think there’s a whole separate conversation to be had about the moral questions about this mindset shift, and the limitations of freeing your mind, so I want to smash the brakes here for today. The bottom line is that you are in control of your own life, and there isn’t a mystical force that’s standing in your way. You just need to let the idea that you have less standing in your way than you think sink in and take off with it. When you do, you will find that you are far more powerful than you could have ever imagined, and the things that you thought were standing in your way were really just mild inconveniences at best. 

I hope this makes sense to you, because it has changed my life. If you are still scratching your head, wondering what in the heck I’m talking about, I’d really like to know so that I can try to explain it again. Otherwise, I’ll catch y’all on the next one, as we talk about the limitations of a freed mind.

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.