The Matrix Vs. The Watchtower. Similarities? Differences?

NaruNaruChan

So here's my spin. Obviously, as apostates we're like the people of Zion in the Matrix... all of us have been extracted from the "matrix" of the Watchtower cult. Neo is like Jesus, obviously, as he's "the one" people put hope in and the people in Zion who don't believe in Jesus are like apostates who left the religion but don't believe anymore.

Morpheus is like all the apostles rolled into one, I think, but I am open for debate on Morpheus. The "Architect" is NOT Jehovah or God or whoever, but is the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society as he created the world of the Matrix. The Agents, those are elders because they're trying to rid the matrix of all the ones who won't assimilate. Agent Smith, this time around, is like the Witnesses who haven't DFed or DAed yet, as he is still in the matrix but is malfunctioning and contaminating other agents.

In the Matrix Reloaded, Neo and the others go to the Oracle for advice, and she says they need to go find the keymaster, but he's being held prisoner by Marivingian (sp?) which is this evil corrupt program in the Matrix. They commented that he was once like Neo but then he changed... that's like an apostate who left the Borg and was normal for a bit but then went drug crazy and nutty etc.

I have more, and more, and more, and more, and more about this subject as it is going to be my masters thesis at some point in my college philosophy career... so If you're interested in debate, let's have it folks. ^_^ Isn't it just creepy as hell, the similarities?

ColdRedRain

I think this has been covered before.

gitasatsangha

The Matrix seems more like the Vedantic concept of "Maya".

drwtsn32

Damn, I just started another thread on this topic. I guess I should have done a quick check before posting. Oh well!

Introspection

For those of you who haven't figured it out already, there are some spoilers here so don't read if you don't wanna find out.

---

Hmm, somehow this thread seems to me to be the clearest example of the expression 'same difference'.

I tend to look at it this way:

The Matrix is the mind which has been influenced by the Watchtower, which isn't really all that different from other minds so that's probably why it's creepy. The good guy and bad guy characters are like different conflicting thought patterns competing against one another, and the powers they possess like the ones Neo, the twins and the agents have are simply subtleties of these types of thinking - at times it may seem like something according to one way of thinking has so much explanatory power that you think that's it, but at other times another way of thinking seems to be better.

Ok in no particular order: The keymaster is the faculty of intelligence, the official agents are of course like the elders and other WTS servant superego, (the instruction from the podium and the FD&S) the new agent Smith is like the voice of those who left but became some kind of fundy, the twins with their power are like the subtlest parts of that general line of thinking that is just a little bit beyond the scope of consciousness. As far as the good guys go, Morpheus is like the ability to recognize crap, Neo is like the ambition, the energy and drive behind the understanding that it's crap, the Oracle is that part of you which already knows it's a bunch of nonsense, but it's kind of repressed and hard to access. Here's where it might get a little weird for ya: The Architect is identity. It is that faculty which tries to bring the thoughts into a coherent entity so it can function as one unit, but this is done without much regard for what is true - it's simply a sense of survival.

By the way, is this sort of like what they meant by type and anti-type?

Oroborus21

Howdy,

You are certainly not the first to make this observation. When the movie first came out this observation was made.

Actually however, one of the beauties of the movie is that many persons have seen some of the themes as a metaphor for their experience--whatever that experience is.

Actually, I think that the directors/writers get a little too much credit for "originality" as the core themes are not unusual and have been borrowed from many places including Jungian psychology and others sources.

Someone wrote a long time ago that "everything we see or seem, is nothing but a dream in a dream." (perhaps George Santayana?)

This is essentially the premise of the Matrix.

Sadly, I haven't yet seen the sequel but the reviews from critics and normal folks alike seem to be mixed. some say that the action is great but the plot is too messy and others say there is not enough plot and they were distracted by the action.

I think that the metaphor analogy to the JWs and the Organization and JW Culture was interesting to draw in the first movie but don't expect it to continue with the sequels as the Wachowskis never had the JWs in mind when they wrote the scripts.

--Eduardo

PS: maybe you should check this article out, the title says a lot

http://slate.msn.com/id/2082400

PS: It is SAD what passes for a real thesis these days.