The Matrix Ideology

Of course, not all media response was positive. Numerous shootouts and murders were alleged to have been linked to the release of the film, most notably the devastating Columbine high school massacre in 1999 just weeks after the film was released (Does 'The Matrix' Inspire the Disturbed). The media not only has its tendrils firmly wrapped around the message of the film, but the narrative following it. In this way, it controls the mental capital, the very desire to consume media.
When Neo takes the red pill, he doesn’t just see the desert of the Real. He sees the dictatorship in democracy, suddenly aware of the invisible order which sustains his apparent “freedom”. At first glance, this ideology is framed as something blurring or confusing reality but ideology should be like a pill which distorts …show more content…
When you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. Many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.” (Wachowski).
This is precisely the justified pessimism of The Matrix. Ideology like desire is not just simply imposed, but the spontaneous relationship to the social world. This, not unlike the matrix, is the ultimate illusion. People enjoy their ideology. Tearing away the ego from ideology is a deeply traumatic experience. They must be forced into freedom. Neo is aware he lives in a lie, that Morpheus’s red pill will make him see the painful truth and shatter the illusion. This is the paradox he must accept, the extreme violence of liberation: one must be forced to be