Is There An Escape From The Matrix?

Clearly, something is wrong in what we call our world.

In America, we have imposters occupying the highest elected offices in the land. We are told by the propaganda outlet media that we elected these people, but hardly a man or woman alive believes that to be so.

We've spent the past year fighting a disease that kills fewer people than the annual seasonal flu. We've been told to stay indoors, close businesses, curtail travel, stay away from each other, wear masks and follow guidance from health officials that seems to change as often as the weather. All of it has been extremely dehumanizing.

We are living in a world that most people do not recognize. We long for a return to "normal" existence, whatever that was, but it may not be coming back. We're told to prepare for a "new normal," whatever that might be. It's likely to be distasteful to average working folks and profitable to the elitists and schemers who like to believe they have everything under control when it's obvious that they don't.

For instance, if they really had control over things, would there be $28 trillion in debt as shown graphically at the US Debt Clock? That's something difficult to overlook. Americans are told that we're all on the hook for it, but that's not true. The federal government owes that debt to rich people and other countries. Not really our problem, and most people go about their business without thinking much - if at all - about the burdensome debt overhanging what is essentially a bankrupt, insolvent government.

Instead, we have our own issues and our own debt. We're told that if we continue to make our mortgage payments, eventually, we will own our homes and have vast wealth. As of the fourth quarter of 2020, the median home price in the United States was $346,800. A down payment of 20%, or $70,000, gets one into such a place, granted he or she (usually two people, married) has excellent credit and enough income to make the payments.

Buy a home. Boom, all of a sudden, you're stuck in the matrix to the tune of $1,167 every month for the next 30 years. That's 360 payments totaling $420,120, and that's just the principal and interest. There's upkeep, property taxes, insurance, and the constant inner and external nagging about keeping your credit score high. Don't miss a payment, and, by the grace of God, don't ever lose your job or think about quitting it. You're stuck there and there's no escape.

Certainly, in what we call the real world, there's no chance to get out of what we used to call the "rat race." We now call it - because we're so much more sophisticated and conditioned by fear - the matrix. We can thank two sisters, Lana and Lilly Wachowski for the screenplay that brought about The Matrix series of films and a conceptualization of what our world really is. It was some groundbreaking work and most people are familiar with the story or at least the understanding of being trapped within a system.

Here's the original 1999 trailer:

Predecessors to the matrix "meme" were other dystopian realities, reflected in the works of George Orwell (1984), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), Franz Kafka (The Trial), and Jean-Paul Sartre (No Exit). Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot was a satirical drama written in 1952 which explored the frustrations of living in an uncontrolled reality.

Thus, the concept of being trapped or encaged or under the thumb of oppressive government or society is nothing new. We've been at this point for centuries, but today, it just seems to be worse than ever and maybe it is.

Financially, few can escape. Being very rich has virtues all its own, but there's the slavery of taxation at every turn, the banking system, differentiating currencies and plenty to worry about. Moving to another country may solve part of the problem, and there may be fewer restrictions on one's freedoms in other places, but few can afford to take advantage of such a luxury.

So, we're stuck here in the matrix. Perhaps the only way out is to free one's mind. It's at least worth a try and there are more than jsut a few people who have made their minds up about how they're going to deal with the rules and restrictions, the taxes and penalties for non-conforming, the stomping foot of authoritarianism.

Kirstie Pursey provides a step-by-step approach to freeing one's mind and offers some interesting observations.

The approach is similar to that of author, Carlos Castaneda, who ushered in new age understanding in his writings, especially in his seminal works, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, 1968,
A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan, 1971, and Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan, 1972.

Here is a selection of his quotations to help get to another level of knowledge and understanding, the beginning of enlightenment, and a forwardly-alternative approach to modern existence.

“Things don’t change, only the way you look at them.” - Carlos Castaneda

The point is that to escape the matrix of the modern world, as expressed in almost all of the references above, one needs to look inside as well as outside one's own perception. That is the beginning. How one proceeds from there is on a path of one's own making.

... to be continued.

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