Zeitgeist and The Matrix
I watched both these films today, to extremely different effects.
After watching The Matrix, I felt empowered. This one man uses inner strength to combat those against him to great ends, eventually finding love and saving those he cares about. The movie made me feel useful, as though I could do anything I wanted as long as I worked hard enough at it. I more or less needed that, too. Starting full-time college has led me to realize that my whole life will be spent learning, working, spending, consuming, and dying. The Matrix kinda slapped me in the face, made me look at the world around me as though it was all there just to mess with me. I don’t need to feel down; everything conspires to make me feel down. I need to wake up and enjoy the life I’m given. I came away from the movie feeling numb but content, ready to face the week ahead full on.
Then I watched Zeitgeist. For anyone who doesn’t know what it is, or who wants to see it, there’ll be a link at the bottom. Essentially, the film examines three major commonly held beliefs (the zeitgeist, or spirit/belief of the time): religion—namely Christianity; the 9/11 ‘attacks’—which I’ll fully admit to hating being a conspiracy theorist to, but evidence is evidence; and the government and money. This movie scared me, honestly. Here I was, on a “Matrix high”, ready to live my life, and this hunk of information blasts into my brain like a typhoon of terror (Jacob). It goes over, in part, how really powerless the American population feels, and is, because of the stagnant nature of our culture. No one does anything any more, because we gave the government power to do practically everything for us. Heard of the NAU? If you have, you’re more in-tune than you should be. Essentially, the former president Bush signed an agreement with Canada and Mexico to create an EU-like union of the North American countries. Without Congress’s input. Or ours. It depresses me that I could not have any idea that America is in a special union with other countries. I should have known. But I didn’t. Add this to the conversation Cody (http://angelsfancrc.tumblr.com/) and I had over AIM recently, on how bloated and terrible the political system in this country is (not only federal, but state and city governments as well), and you get a nice, hateful amalgamation in my head. I want to make my own country, and hopefully it’ll be better than here. I really have no idea if it would be, but it’s worth a shot. That or a second Civil War. It could happen. And I have to admit I may be on the “confederate” side of this war, if and when it happens.
What bothers me the most is how completely and easily I had fallen into this uncaring, useless member of society. I do nothing with my life. I am to chicken-shit to ask a girl I like out (Turns out that’s not happening any time soon. Taken, as well she should be), I go to school to learn to (hopefully) program computers for people with money (most of which I hate anyhow; the best programs are often open-source), I don’t have a job now, so I just mooch from my parents (though the economy is partly to blame for that), and I don’t do anything for anyone else. I don’t matter, in nearly every sense of the word. This isn’t a suicidal rant or anything, this is just me setting my thoughts down on the keyboard so that I or someone else can sort things out and eventually move on to do something.
Enough strangeness for tonight (this morning), I’m heading off. I don’t know how often I’ll post here, but I’ll try to remember to do so. Any time something important happens, you can hopefully count on a post about it by me.
Zeitgeist: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847743189197#
