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You're a slave, Neo.
As an enigmatic sage with impeccable fashion sense, Morpheus sits before
Neo with a bemused confidence which knows more than he can communicate.
He can only bear witness, a task peculiar to the apocalyptic, and when
Neo is brought to him, he can only pull out the poetry and all available
imagery in discussing with Neo the nature of the real. It has to be believed
to be seen. And believing a revelation cannot be done on behalf of someone
else. He has to try and inspire faith, but time is short. In Morpheus'
view, Neo isn't far from understanding the facts beyond what appears to
be matter: "I can see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man
who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up."
What is the Matrix? "The Matrix is everywhere...It is the world that
has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." What
truth? "That you're a slave Neo. Like everyone else, you were born
into bondage, kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch.
A prison for your mind."
 While
Morpheus' witness is scandalous, he also regards Neo with a gravity which,
unless Morpheus is mad, is the most liberating and invigorating gaze he's
ever experienced. He looks upon him as a being of infinite worth whose
every self-estimation is a hopeless underestimation. This is the apocalyptic
Yes. But it is also a No. The one depends upon the other. Neo's freedom
depends upon an ongoing recognition (a vision, in fact) of his slavery.
When the self-proclaimed representatives of "the gospel" have
reduced the good news to "how to get to heaven when you die,"
it's profoundly ironic that a science fiction action film would serve
to bring the reality-altering significance of the Jewish and Christian
revelations up on the cultural radar. All too often, such reductions make
of religious faith the tacit (and sometimes not so tacit) sponsor of the
powers that be, not the resistance force that might overcome them through
radical, alternative, apocalyptic living. The Matrix reminds us
of the stakes and the costliness of such living. Embodied belief. Were
we expecting something else? This is the kind of thing people, students
especially, want to talk about.
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Copyright
©2003 by David Dark.
Adapted from Everyday Apocalypse, published by Brazos
Press; used with permission.
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