Tom Tomorrow's comic strip last week compares George Bush's America to the new movie, Matrix Reloaded. So does Ariana Huffington. Some are even saying that the movie equates Bush with Hitler. Frank Rich, in his article, "There's No Exit from the Matrix", covers the same ground. Synchronistically, I found a comparison between the first movie in the Matrix series and the way Tibetan Buddhists view the phenomenal world discussed in a book I've been reading: Occult Tibet by J.H. Brennan.
Most people reading this column are probably familiar with the Matrix plot. For some of you that aren't, however, the plot concerns the reality of a horrible world governed by intelligent soulless machines who've create an illusory reality for humans to live in. Unknown to most of the populace, the machines are using humans as biological batteries. A small group of heroes sees through the "matrix" and tries to free humanity from its collective delusion. This plot is nothing new to the great gurus, holy men, and consciousness raisers who have talked for centuries about waking up and seeing the way life really is.
I haven't seen Matrix Reloaded yet, but it is interesting that the movie has been released now during the most deceptive time in American history. Apparently, it rings a bell for many people, because they attended openings all over the country, the movie making over $134 million in its first four days. Numerous times I've discussed in this diary how Neptune, the planet of illusion, delusion, and deception has played such a prominent role in George Bush's life as well as in the lives of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Tony Blair for the past two years. I've discussed how Neptune has led this president and his cohorts down an ugly path of attempted Orwellian totalitarianism and religious fanaticism. Unfortunately, the American people have gone along with their Neptunian delusion and have been caught in the Matrix.
It's not hard to see the Matrix in action when you know friends in right wing communities that are being harassed. A friend who lives in a right-wing community in far northern California is a pariah because he doesn't have a giant flag waving from his automobile. He knows a woman that went to a peace demonstration in a larger community who told him that she and her three children had never been told to "fuck off" by so many people so many times in her lifetime.
Since the advent of movies and TV, Neptunian devices, it may be harder than ever for many of us to see reality, but just one person who really sees can help wake others that don't. Perhaps there are enough of us now to provide the leaven for those that still live in the dark. A recent CBS poll indicates that Bush's poll numbers are going down, slightly. The same poll given to Internet users indicates that Bush's poll numbers are in the cellar. It's obvious that while those who watch TV. news are victims of the governmental propaganda and selective reality and are caught in the matrix, Internet users, by having access to a wide variety of news sources, are seeing through it.
This is a frightening time in the history of our country, but there's also a grand opportunity to clear away the fog, to wake up. We must have a president that is awake himself and is able to clearly see what we need to do to create a more humanitarian and equitable world. Still, it will be a Herculean task for anyone to dislodge the corporate power structure without a cataclysm and get rid of the hoodwinked King of the Matrix, George W. Bush.
