h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think that the guy who wrote The Matrix knows something we don't...

I tend to agree with you here....

Apparently there's going to be a series of Matrix films, at least three anyway. Sounds cool.
I bet there's going to be some crackpot groups taking it all literally and searching for an exit button or something...

eXistenZ was pretty cool in terms of conspiracies too.

A lot of eastern philosopies tend to believe that we all live in kind of a self imposed matrix. A communal shared illusion. Maybe that is what the writer was starting from. Maybe its true...

The Matrix could be a metaphor for modern society. We are immersed from day one in an environment which conditions us to such an extent that we cannot readily look at reality and see it as it is anymore. Western society is a battery farm for consumers, as in Brave New World, we do not feel satisfied without material accumulation, to the extent where all public activities are just spectacle. The irony is that whilst immersed in this gigantic illusion of normality, the vast majority of us are unlikely to attain satisfaction, as there will always be more to strive for. As we push harder to reach the higher levels of prosperity, we simply push those who are at the top even higher. People who have broken out of this illusion are no longer useful to the economic matrix and are harassed and vilified. Inherent flaws and shortcomings in the systems design, such as the lack of spiritual enrichment and emotional reward are causing more and more people to see its worthlessness. All of our efforts whilst in this system are ultimately self destructive and the gain from them is reaped by us. So many false beliefs are posited as hard and fast laws that the modern psyche has to develop a form of psychosis to adopt the lop-sided, illogical framework which is thrust upon it.

You really have been thinking about this, haven't you?!

I agree with you totally there
I'm not very eloquent, but if I was I would now rave on about consumerism, disposable societies, etc., etc. Just pretend that I am, and hopefully it'll have the same effect.

I can identify particularly with your comments because I suffer from insomnia, and also have been mucked about by 'the system' an awful lot recently.

Skulker, if you want to put your comments into a form suitable for the Conspiracy Theories page, I'll add it if you like. It's not a madcap theory like most of the others, but it's relevant and truthful.

Or anybody else's theories, for that matter... anyone?

It is very likely people will become obsessed with this theory and try to exit or "bend the rules" of the matrix. This can be done by jumping of a building and trying to defy gravity . By doing this they find one obvious exit from the matrix , may they rest in pieces.

Peregrin...
Yeah, I'll try and wring some kind of cohesion out of that entry, I'd be happy to have something up on a site.It's a bit late fir that kind of shenanigans now though. Also, you might be interested in an older reference to conspiracy theories I wrote. It's at http://www.h2g2.com/A215605. Feel free to use any or all of it if it's useful.
cheers
Skulker

Yeah ..they might but only if they adopted the theory as a straight lift from the movie. The whole set up in the movie with the computers and baby farms was a physical metaphor for something much less visible, a universal delusion which afflicts modern mankind.

This may well be, but the action of jumping out of buildings aligns itself more realistically with the behaviour of a "system fanatic" who was been driven to suicide by the dawning of disappointment with their unfulfilled ways.

It is important to see the difference between conspiracy theory and collective delusion. The former is deliberately engineered; the latter just is, came into being without anyone calling for it. Thast doesn't mean that certain people can't benefit from it being there, these people exist and they have a lot to gain from the delusion being there indeed. However, they did not bring it into being.
That we did by ourselves.

Take a look at democracy. It started with the idea during the Enlightenment that all citizens would be capable of participating in the decision process on a public level. This was a nice idea, but a delusion. We clearly see that not all people even WANT to participate,
that most people are simply glad to have what's theirs, and to know that all is well. You might call this delusion 'a delusion of willingness'.

There is another delusion. That of 'opportunity'. The belief is that in our democracy all who have the willingness to participate, can.
This is also a delusion. When was the European citizen informed about the Euro? Only AFTER it had been decided upon. Americans, do you really believe that voting once for your president and then focusing on his private life is going to give you a handle on the decision making process? Do you believe you have this handle right now?

The third delusion is that of 'position'. I'm Dutch, my prime minister is called Kok. He has been criticised of lacking in vision, of not willing or able to take bold action. How can he? Power holders in politics are becoming more and more power catalysts, since decisions are made during meetings of various and highly splintered interest groups, varying from the commercial enterprises to pressure groups and unions. These battle it out, and then catalyse their result through the political sphere.

This last one seems like a good process, i know. But look closely: you may see the interest groups having a nice chat, but who represents the people in general? In this discussion between interest groups, only certain small parts of the population are taken into account. The general representation that's supposed to be present in democracy is lost because the politician who's supposed to dot his spends more time as a catalyst and chairman than anything else.


This is not a conspiracy. It is a set of collective delusions that is transferring power to people who are not elected by anyone, and cannot be held accountable for their actions. In return, those elected see their role changing from decision maker to entertainer, as the criticism towards them builds.