Are You Living In A Lie?
The world you think you live in does not exist. That’s lesson one for any student of life. As a life-long lover of movies, I’ve realized that some of the most captivating stories are about characters who realize that the world in which they live is not real.
The Matrix, The Truman Show, and Stranger Than Fiction all tell stories about people who are jolted from their everyday reality. Each of these characters comes from a different perspective. Just about everyone relates to at least one of these protagonists. Which one are you?
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In The Matrix, Neo is unsettled, always sure that something is missing from life. His world is hollow. He feels empty, unsure of what needs to happen or who will ever understand.
Truman Burbank
spends his life oblivious to the false reality encapsulating every second of his existence. He is a commodity, a human for sale. Every second of his life generates ratings and income for someone else. His hopes and dreams and passions mean nothing in the real world.
Then there’s dull Harold Crick who controls every instant of his life down to the number of toothbrush strokes a
t the same time each morning. The ultimate image of control, Harold is knocked out of rhythm by the sudden enlightenment that he is about to die, and there’s nothing he can do about it.
The passions, joys, and trials of these characters pique our interest, but their search for answers and meaning captivates us. We want the same answers they seek. We want to know if our lives matter, if there’s more to existence than what we see. We want to know if there’s a higher power.
We have omniscience over Truman and Harold. We know what they do not, who is in control. For Neo, however, we must follow him down the rabbit hole in the ultimate search for reality. Despite entirely different worlds, these three men suffer through a fundamental theme. Awakening is painful.
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Americans are haunted. We live with one eye peeking back, never sure if we’ve escaped the ghosts of our past.
The future only becomes scary after you’ve experienced pain. Ask a happy child if they’re worried about tomorrow and listen to what they say. The deal breaker for that kind of innocence is regret, often the single most controlling factor in our lives. Fear and regret are inextricably linked. Tell me what you regret and I’ll tell you what your afraid of.
Henry David Thoreau asserted that most people live lives of quiet desperation. The truth is that we all do. Most folks share the same doubts and fears, but some people are desperate with hope. Convinced they’ve found ultimate answers, they long to share that hope with as many others as possible before reaching the grave. Movies often end with that kind of enlightened ecstasy.
In real life, the credits usually don’t roll when we reach the top of the mountain. Life keeps on moving and to get to that next mountain top, we have to descend back into a valley. The question is not whether tragedy will befall you. It will. The real question is how will you handle devastation when you face it? The only way to be ready is to find the answers about life. That’s why we love desperate characters like George Bailey from It’s A Wonderful Life.
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Knowledge is power and great stories take us on a journey to learn something new about fictional players and, hopefully, ourselves. Neo discovers meaning and purpose. Truman finds freedom. Harold finds love and joy while figuring out that control can stifle life. None of their realizations comes pain free, and they all face death. As Westley told Buttercup in The Princess Bride, “Life is pain. Anyone who says different is selling something.”
Life is not just pain, but there are many people trying to sell you something (like Neo), or sell you (like Truman), or keep you unaware (like Harold). Better wake up because your story will end not with credits but a coffin.
No one knows how much time they have to figure it out, but the clock is ticking. Life can be invested or wasted. We are not given a third option.
Do you remember a time you realized life wasn’t what you thought?
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Life. Culture. Education.
Life as Pop Culture Professor Clay Morgan
In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo he can take the blue pill and go on believing whatever he wants to believe. Or he can take the red pill to stay in Wonderland and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
This is a red pill type site that provides information in an entertaining way. It’s about clear thinking and good writing. It’s about finding meaning amidst the absurd. It’s about humor and truth.
I’m a writer / speaker who teaches history and political courses at a couple of local colleges. Where is local, you say? Well, that would be Wonderland of course.
On topics ranging from pop culture to the meaning of life, my brain’s always poppin’. Take the red pill and unplug.
Matrix / Truman Show is Real – The Real World Does Not Exist
Recently published scientific research states that most people don’t have first hand evidence of distant places. People only travel in a small area around their work and home.
The whole world is living in a real Truman show/ Matrix.
What people know of the real world has nothing to do with real life experiences but is second hand from books, TV and the Internet.
People tend to visit the same places over and over again.
On the Truman show the main character is imprisoned in a massive television sound stage that contains his entire home town. He fights to escape when he realises his world is fake. His world had defined boundaries, the walls of the sound stage.
Intuitively we think that we understand our own natural behaviour.
Read more at
http://www.deathtoglamour.com/cat/3-blogs/articles/401-its-all-fake-the-matrix–truman-show-is-real—the-real-world-does-not-exist
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