Why would anyone wanna leave the matrix? - The Matrix (1999) Discussion

Sure... but do you want to live in a fake world when you know it is fake?

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No, but I would want to live in a fake world that I didn't know was fake. Which is the case for like 99.99% of the entire human race. The resistance is pretty selfish if you ask me.

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[–] OldG (625) 4 years ago

Fair enough... But it is answered in the movie... Because you feel something is not right... All the people who are oblivious to this feeling doesn't want to leave... but how could you even want to leave if you do not know it is a possibility?

As soon as you know it is not real... I think 99 out of 100 would want to leave even if they knew the state of the real world...

You might want to go back again like Cypher after you have tried the real world... but even he knows that he needs his memory wiped for it to work... You could never exist in the Matrix if you know it is a simulation...

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[–] Ace_Spade (9334) 4 years ago

It depends on your hierarchy of values. A lot of people would place Truth above comfort, or might put a high premium on free will. Some of that is that a lot of people would simply abhor the facade so much that, try as they might, they couldn't relax and enjoy the bountiful fantasy. Personally, I'd rather know the truth and be able to make my own choices.

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[–] abigolcwock (517) 4 years ago

I think most of the people who say they place truth/free will over comfort, actually don't when given an ultimatum.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9334) 4 years ago

That's possible. I've never had that ultimatum come up, so who knows what I'd do?

In my best estimation, I'd rather have the big, nasty truth. If I ever get a real life pop quiz where I have to choose, I'll try to come back on and let you know what happened.

Either way, I think it's still an explanation for why the people trapped in The Matrix want out, even at the expense of their comfort zones. Cypher disagrees, of course...

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[–] Moonglum9 (10697) 4 years ago

but Cypher did say when he was cutting a deal with the agents that he didn't want to remember the real world and they were going to wipe his memory

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[–] Ace_Spade (9334) 4 years ago

So, then maybe the movie is pointing out that, once the Truth stares you in the face it becomes impossible to ignore. Cypher knows he will never be content if he knows, so he wants them to wipe his memories of the real world.

As I said earlier, "...people would simply abhor the facade so much that, try as they might, they couldn't relax and enjoy the bountiful fantasy."

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[–] JoeCinema (89) 4 years ago

He're a truth: Your mother doesn't really love you. She's programmed to. It's a trick to make her take care of her programming code: you. Parents who aren't "fooled" don't take care of their kids and the code dies. That's the reason more people "love" their kids than not.

We are programmed for a lot of things like that, just not by Colonel Sanders in a TV control room.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9334) 4 years ago

What do you mean by "programmed"? Are you talking about brain chemistry?

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[–] JoeCinema (89) 4 years ago

Genetic code, chemistry. My point is that we don't have control.

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[–] Ace_Spade (9334) 4 years ago

That might be semantics, though, at a molecular level.

If we are just meat bags obeying chemical and electrical stimulation and our brains are programmed to run on certain tracks, that programming is our essential being and "its" "control" of us is synonymous with what our thinking minds would recognise as "free will", since it is the progenitor of our consciousness, anyway.

If you think that the mind is different from the brain and the mind is trapped by the brain, okay, but then free will can be obtained within the mind, not externally, making the chemical impulses an irrelevant distraction.

In which case, Epictetus' philosophy and the observations and deductions of Viktor Frankl are of supreme value, teaching us how to obtain a fulfilling life within ourselves.

It also would raise an important question: there are many people who come from families filled with abuse and problematic behaviour. They grow up reflecting this behaviour, but as adults rise above it and remove themselves from their abuses and addictions and start fresh. If our programming is hard-wired in a certain mode, why are we capable of breaking habit and behaviour patterns?

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[–] JoeCinema (89) 4 years ago

I think the question of freewill is moot point because whatever we do, we do. (which always reminds me of Buckaroo Banzaï's "wherever you go, there you are").

Regarding your last paragraph. My post was reductive for brevity. It's obviously not that simple. Children don't grow up with only their parents around and the level of parental care is more of a sliding scale than an on/off switch. To stay with the computer analogy, broken code can still work.

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[–] wearsalan (5554) 4 years ago

The thing is the resistance is drawn to those few individuals who feel there is something wrong with 'their' reality. At the end of the trilogy the agreement is that those who wished to be released from the Matrix would be freed.

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[–] DracTarashV2 (4474) 4 years ago

FREEEEEEDOM!!!!
For what it’s worth anyway.

Live in blissful ignorance by deciding to stay in a simulated world.... where you’re basically disposable and can be killed by an Agent... or wake up in an unpleasant, albeit real world where you’re no longer (relatively speaking) a complete slave? Hmm... tough choice. ;} You won’t be chilling in paradise either way!

But the Cyphers of the world are with ya.

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[–] Heisenberg (6273) 4 years ago

I think the reason is obvious, clear, and ANYBODY including you would go for it.

People are curious. They will want to know the truth if given the chance.

Morpheus never hints at how awful the real world is. Neo got tricked, pretty much.

They should make a movie asking the reverse question, EVERYBODY would pay a fortune to escape that shit world and live in the matrix.

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[–] ultravioletx (10212) 4 years ago

The problem is you don't know how dreary the real world is until you've been taken out of the matrix. From there it might not even be possible to put yourself back. And even if there was a small possibility, you're risking failure which is death, just at a shot at having your normal, mundane life back.

Really the only way back in that makes any sense is to go with Cypher's plan of making a deal with agents to make you someone with a lot of clout. But to get that deal you basically have to murder your friends. Ick.

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