We Are Living In The Matrix
An EcoChi Vital Abstract
This article was published in the February 4-17, 2019 issue of New York Magazine, p.55, written by Mark Harris, Max Read, Andrea Long Chu, Emily Yoshida, Adam Sternbergh, and Bilge Ebiri.
8 Things the Matrix Predicted:
1. Our National Aversion to Reality: In an era when the president’s lawyer can go on TV and splutter, “Truth isn’t truth!” as if it’s something everyone should know, The Matrix is omnipresent. Since 1999, the real world has provided ample opportunity for people to turn The Matrix into the foundational text of a frighteningly thorough and self-adoring denial of whatever was in front of their noses, which roughly translates as, Reality is fake and I don’t have to listen to anyone about anything.
2. The Breakdown of the Gender Binary: Trans women have claimed The Matrix as an allegory for gender transition since at least 2012, when Lana Wachowski publicly came out as a trans woman while doing press for the film Cloud Atlas. (Her sister Lilly followed suit in 2016.) The symbolism is easy to find: Thomas Anderson’s double life (he’s a hacker by night), his chosen name (Neo), his vague but maddening sense that something is off about the his vague but maddening sense that something is off about the about the world — “a splinter in your mind,” Morpheus calls it.
3. The Not-So-Academic Case for Simulation Theory: Some people claim to remember TV coverage of Nelson Mandela’s death in the 1980s, even though he lived until 2013. Is “The Mandela Effect” proof that whoever is in charge of our simulation is changing the past? Or could the reason we haven’t met aliens yet be that the computer we live in only has enough RAM to simulate one planetary civilization at a time?
4. Most of What Elon Musk Thinks: Is Elon Musk the real-life Neo? A former Tesla exec says he’s the One: “Watch The Matrix. Elon is Neo. He sees these zeroes and ones.” Musk himself says there’s only a “one in billions chance” that we aren’t living in a simulation.
5. The Rise of Superhero Movies: It was obvious even in 1999 that The Matrix had reinfused action movies with swagger. Evident only now is how it managed to do something even more monumental: teach Hollywood how to put superheroes on film…and, what’s more, made it look awesome.
6. Non-Muscly Action Heroes: In the wake of Neo’s slender poise, the notion of the “unlikely action star” became quite common. No longer did action films need to be anchored by chiseled, emotionally limited commandos like Stallone or martial-arts experts with expressive charm like Wesley Snipes.
7. Barack Obama’s Post-Presidency: During the 2008 campaign, John McCain ran ads referring to Obama as “the One,” mocking Democrats’ Morpheus-like awe for their candidate. Ten years later, describing life after his second term, Obama said, “Everything moves in slow motion. You leave the presidency and you are like Neo, where bullets are coming at you and they are super-slow and you just put your hand up.”
8. Matrix-Style Fashion: For the past few years, celebrities, models, and street-style influencers have paired tiny sunglasses with black nylon trench coats, tactical belts, and even chest rigs. The movie still has a grip on fashion — looks inspired by all four of its main characters could be seen on the spring 2019 runways.
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