"7. America United Against the British"

This is the ignominy of nationalism. My family were Swiss Mennonites, my great ancestor Casper Schürch (1657 - 1739) inmigritated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a loyalist to Britain, and so were his 2 sons. During the American Revolution his sons fled to Canada to avoid being beaten or killed by revolutionary Statesmen. They settled near Markham and eventually there were enough Schürchs in the region to found a new city based on the surname; Sherkston, Ontario, Canada.

So, what does that make me? Swiss, American or Canadian? Should I be loyal to the British and am I a Mennonite or not? It is evidently clear to me that it is all bollocks. The only thing that makes me a Canadian is the fact that I live within the arbitrarily defined political boundary that gives definition to "Canada".

So this is like all other "holi-days" they don't represent the objective reality, they represent subjective reality. They represent emotional content. Like Christmas which as you probably know was placed on the same day as Sol Invictus (The Birth of the New Sun), December 25th. While Jesus Christ was estimated to be born in September. This is was done in order to 'transfer' the emotional content associated with Sol Invictus to "Christmas Day". Since its inception, Christmas Day has more to do with economics and emotionality than re-presenting the reality. Pretty much the same holds true of all prescribed "holi-days".

He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of [other] men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight (Luke 16:15).

Got lots of "World of..." time-sinks. I easily wasted a few months of life playing WoW. Then I realized it is utterly pointless and stressful. Gotta get high enough fire-resistance so I can go to Molten Core. Oh! A new expansion comes out. Now everyone is going to Zul'Grub instead of Molten Core, gotta seek out poison-resistence. Oh! Now we are going somewhere else. I spent months collecting fire-resistence gear for several raid members only to have the raid abandon Molten Core when the expansion came out. It became evidently clear to me that time spent on the game was time wasted, and I let go of my dream of acquiring the year-long meta-achievement for all the event-days. Thinking is much more rewarding.

If you like Risk, try playing Lux Delux, it is a pretty basic game, but fun to waste a few minutes on.

Amazing!, Isn't it? Humans will do all kinds of irrational things for the immediate pleasure, and when their bodies start to decay as a result, they can't correct themselves. Come crawling faster.

Saw a pride of lions eat a man once, they looked just as cute then too. Perspective, heh.

Getting struck by lightning is God's punishment for going outside in a thunder-storm.

I did a study of national anthems once. They all seem to contain militaristic or prideful statements. If not explicit like the third stanza of the German National anthem "Deutschland über alles" (Germany above all). It is implicit, made by exclusion, as in the Canadian National anthem "we stand on guard for thee."

They all reflect the division inherent in nationalism. The division allows for a relative or contingent domain of self-worth. "I am Canadian" which is completely convention, completely arbitrary, and completely about pride, fear and egotistical attachment generally. Such heartfelt attachment makes it easy to mobilize a mass of people into endless and bloody wars "to protect our 'homeland'."

I don't mean to be a scrooge, but "Proud to be Canadian" is a marketting slogan used by Molson Canadian. Pride is an elevated sense of self-worth. "I have an elevated sense of self-worth because I am Canadian".

This is a contingent domain of self-worth. "Proud to be National Socialist", "Proud to be Kmer Rouge", "Proud to be Stalinist-Russian", "Proud to be White Supremacist" Whatever the domain and whatever the contingency, to have your self-worth wrapped up in these things predisposes you to evil. Makes you a puppet.

Mr. Farrier, whether consciously or unconsciously, you are teasing me today. This is another masterpiece of philosophical insight. I will restrain myself as best I can.

"When God hath ordained a creature to die in a particular place, He causeth that creature's wants to direct him to that place. " - Liet-Kynes, Dune(1965)

Ironically, some commentors have said that the scene with the Merovingian is utterly pointless to the plot. Which serves to demonstrate how masterful the films are, people manage to ignore 90% of the film while marvelling at the cinematics. It is just as the Merovingian said it was "Soon the why and the reason are gone and all that matters is the feeling." Does anyone care why the movie had all that dialog about causation in it? Or were people just stricken by "bullet-time" and other cinematic innovations? I doubt the films would have gained popularity if they weren't visually "stunning". People would have been bored, having no interest in philosophy or truth.

@Will ASN

Who needs drugs? This movie is chalked full of philosophical and religious imagery; you can't miss it unless you are overawed by the cinematics. The whole exchange between the Merovingian, Persephone, Morpheus and Neo is a philosophical debate over Determinism and Libertarianism. The Merovingian asserts that everything is caused to happen, that we are not free but we only think we are. He says true knowledge and true power are in the recognition of our ultimate slavery to causation. People think they act freely, and this allows great power to one who can recognize their true motives. He illustrates it with the orgasmic cake he has served to the voluptuous blonde in his restuarant, while describing her thought-process; wondering why the cake is so good "What is the reason? Soon the why and the reason are gone and all that matters is the feeling. This is the nature of the universe. We struggle against it, we fight to deny it; but it is of course a lie. Beneath our poised appearance we are completely out of control."

This isn't the first time free-will is called into question. When Neo goes to see the Oracle in the first film:

Oracle: I'd ask you to sit down, but, you're not going to anyway. And don't worry about the vase.
Neo: What vase?
[Neo turns to look for a vase, and as he does, he knocks over a vase of flowers, which shatters on the floor]
Oracle: That vase.
Neo: I'm sorry...
Oracle: I said don't worry about it. I'll get one of my kids to fix it.
Neo: How did you know?
Oracle: Ohh, what's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?

She also explains the sign hanging above her door which reads "Nosce te ipsum" (Know Thyself).

Things get really interesting when Neo meets the Architect. And don't forget everyone in the Matrix consists of code upon code, which is patently deterministic. They are unaware that they are slaves; and as Morpheus explains to Neo in the training program (with the girl in the red dress); "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it. "

This is Plato's Cave allegory; people like their ignorance. Later Cypher makes a deal with Agent Smith to be plugged back in to the Matrix:

Cypher: You know, I know this steak doesn't exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?
[Takes a bite of steak]
Cypher: Ignorance is bliss.

The movies are philosophical masterpieces. Worth multiple viewings to soak it all up.

I like this one, demonstrates the paradox of unity in separation, aka integration.

"This is just an illustration, you are just a simulation, lines and pixels on a piece of paper." - DJ Madson, Is This The Real Thing?, The Animatrix

Merovingian: You see there is only one constant. One universal. It is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction. Cause and effect.

The only thing that would have made this movie better is if people understood it.

I guess I'll have to revise my statement: "We have had 13,000 years of human cultural evolution to figure this stuff out. And what we determined, we swiftly abandoned in the 20th century."

A DIY torture machine for the hamster lover.

Stop me before I start making sense. Black/Large