Real Life in a Virtual World - Part 3

Every society is conditioned to believe that modern life, the here and now, is better than any other previous civilization in the history of mankind. Who or what determines that? ~T. Glady

Continuing scrutiny of the Matrix...

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You can find 

Part 1- Easy - HERE 

Part 2 - Experts - HERE

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New

Once upon a time, back in real life, ‘new and improved’ was the end result of creative innovation. The process was fueled by unfettered creativity that easily found its natural place in the free market. A thing could still work but a new thing might work better or have more features so it was offered up to the public. A person then had a choice to either continue using the thing that worked or upgrade to the newer thing. 

Please keep in mind the old thing still worked and could easily be repaired to continue working for a long time.

Apparently, the choice to do or not, to buy or not, was too broad an option for the Matrix builders. It allowed too much independent free-thinking and not quite enough addictive consumerism which was the necessary step to help complete the new construct. 

Therefore, Planned Obsolescence was implemented–the first layer of an emerging Matrix. 

Things could break on cue and the day after the guarantee expired and thus need replacing. Darn! Quickly, as demand for replacements grew, manufacturing expanded even to far away places where labor was cheaper. Soon things became so plentiful and so inexpensive it cost far less to buy new rather than repair so more things were made with one-use disposability in mind rather than long term usability.  As people who made a living doing repairs on things eventually became unnecessary, more land fills were needed to accommodate the growing mountains of disposed of things. 

Then, micro replaced macro. Digital and virtual slowly replaced real until the obvious next step was taken to simple licensing, meaning one doesn’t really own a thing, one pays to borrow or lease it, which has at last evolved to the final phase, it will only work until the next upgrade is released and you will want that because you have to want it because the previous version will no longer be supported. And you can only use it on a specific number of devises. Individual ownership must be eliminated for the common god. [<-----not a typo]. Regards, Your Matrix Masters.

In the now fully functional Matrix, ‘new and updated’ is a beast that must be fed, not annually or monthly but daily. It’s like a creepy sci-fi movie where the citizens discover they have been obeying an alien that looks all benign human but turns out to be a putrid flesh-eating monster. That’s probably the first reason the illusion is maintained. People do tend to recoil at the sight of flesh eating monsters. So, the Matrix Masters work overtime keeping lipstick on the pig and the truth away from the citizens all the while coaxing them gently into the hypnotic state of eagerly desiring to feed the monster, without even knowing it through the process of frenzied social engineering.  

Remember in Soylent Green when Charleston Heston discovered the truth about the suicide death clinics and what happened to the bodies? Or when Rod Taylor in The Time Machine by H.G. Wells went into the future and found human beings called Eloi treated like cattle by the monsters called Morlocks who lived underground? The Eloi were herd-able because they had no memory of their origins. Think along those lines. That’s why historical evidence and memory of everything old that might revive interest in the way things used to work and work and continue to work, must be eradicated, eliminated in the best interest of keeping the Matrix operational. It’s a model for a darker agenda.

Long term memory is not compatible with the operating system of the Matrix because it is so prophetic. Therefore history, or anything that offers proof of the consequence of repetitive action is deemed old, antiquated, useless, unnecessary. Sin? What’s that?

PAY NO ATTENTION TO HISTORY! STAY FOCUSED ON THE NEWEST THING!

In order for the Matrix to continue to fuel the monster that sustains it, all things deemed old must constantly be replaced by all things new. New stuff, new religions, new ideologies. If the norm in the Matrix is a constant replacing of old with new and if new is accepted blindly and without question as being always better, then what happens to the tried and true, the proven by time? 

Does disposable become a condition that applies to humans as well? What about souls?

I ask again, is there a price to be paid for ease of doing? Is there a price to be paid for trusting anyone and anything just because it wears a tag “Expert”? Is there a price to be paid for replacing that which works with that which is new just because it is ... new? 

Sometimes all we need is the original thing, not the new thing.

For HIm,

Meema 

[Ecclesiastes 1:9] That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Real Life in a Virtual World Part 2

Every society is conditioned to believe that modern life, the here and now, is better than any other previous civilization in the history of mankind. Who or what determines that? ~T. Glady

Over the next few posts I’m going to explore this concept of ‘better’ based on my own observations and frustrations with the struggle to cling to a semblance of real life while embedded in the Matrix, which is not even close to being real.

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You can find Part 1- Easy -  HERE.

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My cute father-in-law was a card carrying member of the Greatest Generation. He used to love diving whole hog into spirited discussions with me about all kinds of topics from low-fat diets–he was for it, I was against it–to what Clinton did behind closed doors–he believed it was no one’s business, I believed behaviors and choices that reveal a president’s integrity or lack thereof is everyone’s business especially when done behind the Oval Office door.

We would often engage in light-hearted, respectful sparing and usually, if it appeared I might be close to making my case, he’d pull out and slap down his ace in the hole–the ‘Expert Card”. He’d hunker down, tighten his lips, shake his head and say, with a tone of finality clearly meant to trump me, “They plainly say...blah, blah, blah (topic of the moment).

One day, for no other reason than I am ornery, I asked, “Reggie, who is ‘they’?”

He gave me the look. You know, the ‘what you talking about Willis?’ eyes squinted down, eyebrows knitted, slitted no-teeth-showing non-smile smile. 

“What?” He responded. 

“Who are ‘they’? I pressed. “You keep saying ‘they plainly say...’ So, who are these all knowing ‘they’?” 

A great big annoyed sigh escaped as he shook his head, he took in a deep breath pulling together all he had to set me straight, “THEY...you know...the experts!” 

End of discussion.

And there it was, the sum up of how easy it is to herd an entire population into a common stream of consciousness. Credentials, titles, sometimes nothing more than a wide reaching broadcast forum, and one can firmly establish an untruth to be an accepted guideline for the electorate.

This is the norm in the Matrix. What is real and true is anathema and akin to acid thrown onto a well-oiled machine churning out feel-good trust in an alternate reality. And the clueless citizens don’t seem to care, so long as their small cell within the illusion is not disturbed.

They plainly say...and thus it is so. 

Take this miracle drug...no wait, that was last year...get a lawyer and join the class action suit. Delete. Tell your doctor you want this drug instead, in rare cases it causes death. Wait.... Delete.

The earth is cooling. No..wait...it’s warming...no wait...it’s changing. Has nothing to do with volcanic activity and earth tilt toward the blazing sun. It’s definitely mankind’s carbon footprint. They plainly say that something very mass controlling and expensively burdensome must be done before we all die of.... Delete.

Radiation is bad for living things. Crippled Japanese nuke plant dumps tons of radiated water into Pacific. Sea life is melting. Scientists are baffled. Baffled I say! Delete.

Trust the man in the black broadcloth suit and white collar. He is the expert on God. Wait...never mind, he’s a pedophile. Delete. 

Trust the credentialed and titled who demand that education of children must be revised even though those who are changing and revising the way children are educated rose to their positions of intellect, knowledge and power by being educated the old-fashioned way. And, I might add, had summers off to be kids. Delete.

Trust the scientist, the professor, the engineer, the movie star, the reality TV show star, the athlete, the lawyer, the judge, the congressman, the wealthy evangelist, the famous book author, the billionaire software mogul, the activist teacher, the governor, the chemist, the news anchor with really good hair, the rap-singer, the manufacturer, the law-makers, the president...they know what they are talking about. They have...Matrix Credibility. 

They have what? They know what? 

They know what they think, and some might even sort of believe they think they know what is true, especially if they are continuously told they do. Some have book-learning and years of experience. That matters when you need a stable building or a bridge built or a safe fast moving vehicle or a non-poisonous food product or heart surgery. Some are just robots with artificially programed intelligence. Input/output. Many have knowledge but that which is no longer acceptable or does not align with the current trending truths so they have good reasons, mostly personal reasons regarding steady employment, for you to accept what they say without questioning their revision of truth. 

Statistics are great tools but are hardly static and are as suspect as the great faceless ‘they’ when deciding who or what to believe.

What is true in the Matrix seems to be somewhat organic and is constantly evolving. It’s never a solid standard or a foundation to build upon. It’s more a means to an end. Buried in the deep operating system of the Matrix there’s always an agenda to be thrust forward so it must be constantly manhandled and remolded to accommodate shifting necessity.

The only constant in the Matrix is the law that demands that everything that was true yesterday, might not be true today, but pay no attention to that. Delete.

REPEAT: PAY NO ATTENTION TO YESTERDAY’S TRUTH! Delete. Delete, Delete!

There is so much irony here one could build a battleship. 

For all our opposite points of view there is one thing I know Reggie would agree with me on. A real expert, the one you could trust with your life, is the one who is armed with common sense, who knows how, and is not afraid to use it. One who may not have a title or letters following his name but who has a knowledge of and faith in a Greater Truth and so manages to survive the negative consequences of the power and authority of the false ones who are temporarily in charge. 

For Him,

Meema

It is a law of the human soul that people tend to become like that which they admire most intensely. Deep and long continued admiration can alter the whole texture of the mind and heart and turn the devotee into something quite other than he was before. For this reason it is critically important that we Christians should have right models. It is not enough to say that our model should be Christ. While that is true, it is also true that Christ is known mostly through the lives of His professed followers, and the more prominent and vocal these followers are the more powerful will be their influence upon the rank and file of Christians. If the models are imperfect the whole standard of Christian living must suffer as a result. ~A.W. Tozer

Real Life in a Virtual World - Part 1

Every society is conditioned to believe that modern life, the here and now, is better than any other previous civilization in the history of mankind. Who or what determines that? ~T. Glady

Over the next few posts I’m going to explore this concept of ‘better’ based on my own observations and frustrations with the struggle to cling to a semblance of real life while embedded in the Matrix, which is not even close to being real.

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Those who have only a cursory knowledge of history to compare to would argue that it is modern technology that makes things better in this era because it makes life easier.

Easier. Easiest. Easy. What does that mean? Less labor or physical exertion? Less need for time spent training, learning, preparing? Fewer hours working, more hours relaxing? Does ‘easy’ ever come with consequences? Is there no price to be paid in exchange for ease of doing? 

Cherry picking a point, yes, certainly it is easier to do laundry in an electric washing machine and dryer than to scrub clothes with soap you made yourself on a washboard before you hang them one at a time out to dry. I’d definitely prefer to keep my washer/dryer. But... let’s say I had to give them up. First off, I’d quickly make some life-style adjustments, like choosing not to wash things after just one use, like towels but not like underwear. Maybe I’d change the sheets once a month instead of once a week? 

I might complain a bit and recall longingly of the days when I could do three loads of clothes, washed, dried, put away in three hours while doing other things in between loading, unloading, sorting, folding and distributing back to their holding places in drawers and closets.

While doing other things. Things I have determined are more important, less tedious or just funner than doing laundry. Ease of doing laundry, which used to be a tough day’s work certainly qualifies as better. Right?

But what about those days when I know I have laundry piled up and I just can’t seem to find the time to get it sorted and the first load started? What about the days when, as I am sorting the darks, lights and in-betweens into separate piles I grumble under my breath about having to do laundry at all? Didn’t I just wash this pair of pants on Tuesday?

Fortunately, I have a built in Matrix alarm that stops me in my tracks when I dare to go down that pitted ingrates road. I take a breath and tell God how much I appreciate my washer/dryer and I have a flashback of my mom washing clothes in a wringer-washer and then being overjoyed at the upgrade to her front-load electric washer but still having to go out to the backyard and hang the heavy soggy clothes up with wooden pins on a wire line stretched between two poles. Even in the winter. Every Monday. Sometimes rainy Mondays. Wash days in my mother’s housekeeping days were relegated to Mondays. Nothing else was more important. 

Reality check! 

So, I say, “Thank You, Lord” again, knowing that without some effort or impetus, perspective that has been formed and nurtured in the Matrix is hard to reorder.

But isn’t this about as human as it gets? We are never satisfied. How soon we forget. We are easily spoiled and find things to complain about, no matter how much easier/better our lives are because of modern inventions, like electricity, indoor plumbing, air conditioning. Cell phones, the Internet. Gadgets, tools, faster-than-the-speed-of-light vehicles. For every modern convenience at our fingertips, for each and every moment of ‘have to’ labor freed up for a moment of unstructured time or other ‘choose to‘ activity that we deem to be time better spent, we step away from real life into a complex manufactured world where the new customary is defined by the idea of ‘EASY’. It’s an adjective fused into all the mind control advertising we are subjected to across multiple mediums night and day. 

Easy to Use. Easy Button. It’s So Easy. Take It Easy. Easy Does It. The Easy Life. Super Easy. Easy Street. Easy Sneezy. Free And Easy. Quick And Easy.

In the Matrix, the goal seems to be less about elevating and refining humanity and more about simply making everything easy. Easy job, easy life. Minimal effort. Let the technology do what man once did by hand to free up man’s mind to do...more important things.

What might those important things be, one might ask? An easy life, divested of hard labor or the physical exertion that sheer survival requires, allows time for important interactions with others via Twitter and texting, and Facebook. Then there’s hours available to spend online, utilizing the instant ease of playing games or shopping or researching the nuances and reflections of the good, easy life that then can be emulated. Those are certainly important endeavors that promise to exercise and strengthen humankind’s intellect.

No one could argue that the greatest advance to civilization was the harnessing of electricity that now courses through the wires to homes and businesses making it possible to work all day and all night too, now. No need to be dependent on the light of the sun. No more boundaries of laying down the plough at dusk to go back to a hot meal with family and well-deserved rest. Artificial light also makes playing and enjoying leisure around the clock a boon to the modern civilized world. Las Vegas comes to mind, where all night is lit up as bright as day, providing lots more hours of important civilizational advancement activities.

Then there’s availability of 24/7 televised information, both fictional and fiction pretending to be real. In the Matrix most televised information is not even close to real but the citizens are desensitized so that nothing spoken is believed anyway. Whether it is news, art or sales pitch it’s all good and Easy! Disposable! Quick! Instant! Amazing! [insert favorite superlatives here].

So, back to the original question, is there a price to be paid for technology providing more leisure, and less work? 

Reminds me of an old English proverb - An idle mind is the devil’s playground.

For Him,

Meema

[1 Corinthians 15:58]  ...Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.