“THERE IS NO SPOON.” Part II (X.) by X.

It is an unfortunate (although predictable) weakness of the Matrix script that it promotes a pointless individualistic outlook: Once Neo can deconstruct the Matrix and “see the code”, he is reborn as a super-hero who can bend the rules of the Matrix all by himself. Not surprisingly, the tantalizing threat/promise that Neo makes at the end of the first movie (to wake up everyone and see what happens) never comes to pass in the sequels. The original script idea is betrayed, and by the third episode the plot degenerates into the deflating martyrdom of Neo the savior. We never get to see the episodes that should have been, where more and more people awaken to revolutionary consciousness and learn how to bend the rules of the Matrix.

The script’s shortcomings reflect the US Left’s own inability to get past the protest/advocacy mode and to recognize a new process of revolutionary change. The movement’s narrowness of vision fails to inspire the progressive and revolutionary artists to consider the real transformation of the system outside the realm of fantasy. Since the activists of the progressive “loyal opposition” cannot conceive how to build a movement here and now that enables the great majority to take part in changing the world, the progressive artists inevitably fall back on the Hollywoodian myth of the lone champion. Not only the Matrix, but most recent big budget fiction films with a progressive or revolutionary theme such as “V for Vendetta”, “John Q”, and the despicably cynical “The Life of David Gale” all rely on a central superhero and/or lone martyr to bring about change.

It may be a good thing however, that the Matrix sequels failed to deliver on Neo’s promise to awaken the majority and “see what happens.” Because rather than watching the story, we get to live the history if only we allow ourselves to recognize that it is by working and deciding together, by practicing collaborative decision-making, by practicing democracy that people begin to recognize that “there is no spoon” and to see the astounding potential of their social power to change the system radically.

To be continued...