Do We Live Or Dream Through Reality?

When asking yourself the question, "Do we live in The Matrix?" you must first analyze how real you consider reality to be. The difference between dreaming while you sleep and living your everyday life while awake can sometimes be very subtle in the sense that you still recognize objects, locations and people. That's what makes dreams interpretable, their relation to your life as you experience it awake. The concept of reality is questionable though when you consider that these things you recognize may not be real. You may just as easily be encountering these things because you are relating them in your life to something you have only encountered in your dream.

In Socrates's "Allegory of the Cave" he argues that simply liberating the prisoner may not necessarily make him come to terms with reality by being liberated from his visual captivity. He has been fixed to only see shadows on a wall his whole life. Allowing him to see what caused the shadows may not even cause him to have a better understanding of the shadows. He may not recognize or even make a connection between certain objects and the shadows they cast because it has no basis in his reality as he knows it. His lack of acknowledgement of these objects does not make them any more or less real. In the same sense with things you know to be real because you encounter them everyday does not necessarily mean that if you were to better understand how they have come to exist you would accept it. Vice versa, if you were to encounter something in a dream that seems familiar from everyday life, and then were to come to realization that it's existence relies on something new or unknown to you would it shake up your view on it in your life awake? Or in essence do these things exist at all in dream or your everyday life?

You rely on your sences to regester what you are seeing and feeling. In Descartes's "Meditations on First Philosophy", he argues that our senses can be very deceptive. Perhaps even to the extent that you may classify things as real only because it has regestered as something familiar. You recognize things in your dreams because you know them well from your everyday life. Your take on reality is what you are basing these judgements on. In dreaming you have nothing to refrence a new idea or object to. Perhaps neither should be your reference considering your reality awake is based on your senses. Considering this basis on reality may be wrong as your senses can be deceptive the difference between dreaming and your life awake may not be so different at all. Or maybe you have no knowledge on the awake reality because you drift from dream to dream. Every session of being awake ends and begins with sleep. You dream while you sleep.

The Matrix

The story of Neo's life in "The Matrix" can be compared to many similar characters through out history. A well based comparison can be that of Neo and the epic story of Jesus. Both endure similar trials and tribulations before embracing their calling. Although they both understand their mission they are full of doubt early in their development. Both eventually realize that they do serve an important purpose and that they are in fact capable of succeeding in there mission.
Another similar character is Socrates. Much like Neo he also questions his calling and is filled with doubt as to if he truly is the right person for the job. They both encounter an oracle that provides if not answers to silence their doubt, at least a point in the right direction. In a sense maybe not answers but more so the right questions. Both are weighed with the burden saving and enlightening their people.
One of Socrates best known works regarding enlightenment is "The Allegory of the Cave". Much like "The Matrix" it deals with the search for the truth. The mere idea of a bigger picture can be shocking to someone who knows and believes only what they have seen. To be able to think outside the box and consider that there is more going on then what you know and see is in a sense like walking out of the cave into the light. At this point the question of being able to accept this new knowledge is what makes the difference. You can choose to step back into ignorance and deny that there is more then what you know or you can embrace this new concept and use it to progress, in essence the choice between "the red and blue pill" as illustrated in "The Matrix".
The film itself is a direct commentary on how we accept what is presented to us through the media or how we can seek out our own answers as to what is going on around us. So much of our day to day lives relies on how we view the world we live in. If we are to only follow as told we have accepted our lives in "The Matrix" and are content with the guidelines we have been given. This however does not leave room for forming your own views and opinions. If we choose to question or look further into the information we are provided with we may be shocked at what we find. In the end isn't it better to know then to just follow blindly tho?

Allegory of the Cave

Socrates’ “Allegory of The Cave” fascinates me because it describes stages of enlightenment that anyone can be categorized under. No matter what your interests are you always have the choice to accept what you already know or question it in pursuit of a broader understanding. The age old quarrel of “Light versus Darkness” has been a reoccurring theme throughout history. For every new idea, there is always someone to criticize it. Without that critic though, there would never be a need for self-improvement.

As far as myself in the cave, I believe I am slowly but surely taking baby steps into the light. As an adolescent I always questioned why my life was the way it was, and what I can do to make what I want out of it. Looking back though, I was far from out of the cave. I hated how people were so ignorant as to social flaws and authoritative hypocrisy. This somehow led me to try to step out of this machine of thought. I eventually learned that sporting a Mohawk, a studded leather jacket, and Doc Martins combat boots was not thinking freely. I merely had gone from interpreting shadows to taking a glimpse at the fire. Although it was a far stretch from my Christian upbringing, it was not the answer I was looking for.

Over the last couple of years I have been satisfied with knowing what caused the shadows. I’ve recently come to realize that is not enough. My concept of the world I live in has expanded to not only wanting to understand, but learning more about how knowledge of all aspects of this world work in unison with my day to day life. I have returned to school in pursuit for the light outside the cave. Ignorance is bliss, but simply being satisfied with what I already know doesn’t enable me to change anything. Living in the light is the most powerful tool I can have to mold my life into what I want.