Sunday, October 5, 2014

Welcome to the Desert of the Real

I enjoyed watching The Matrix this week. I have seen The Matrix so many times that it allowed me to not worry about the plot of the movie and just focus on the dialogue. What is real? The idea of the matrix is quite fascinating. If I compare it to real life I would say that it is the world that engulfs our life that we accept and are not critical of. The people in the Matrix go through life not questioning anything they are mindless to say. When neo gets to see the real world he has a panic attack, because he realizes that everything he knew was a lie. I think that as people we can get like this on issue in this world. If we go to Disney World but we don't know what they are trying to do then we are mindless and stuck in this "Matrix."

I think the best example in class that helps me realize what Baudrillard is getting at is the Epcot: World Showcase. When we walk in to Epcot we know that the Japan part is not in Japan. But we think that we get a sense for what Japan would be like because of Epcot. So is our idea of Japan real then?

My favorite part of the Matrix is when Cypher is eating with agent Smith and he is sitting there talking with him eating a steak. He tells agent Smith, that he knows that this steak is not real, but he chooses to remain ignorant because life is easier that way. At that point he says "Ignorance is Bliss." We all do this is in life choosing to know something but because it does not affect your life directly to not truly believe it. We know that genocide is going on in Africa but we choose not do anything about it because it does not affect our life. Our society has started to take Ebola serious because it has made its way into the United States, but a couple months ago it was not realistic because of how far away it was. Ignorance is Bliss.

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