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In the movie, The Matrix, the hero was plugged into a machine that let him live out his own personal fantasy while it fed off his energy. The machine had many workers, smaller machines that worked for the same goal. Drugs kept the living asleep and programs that could influence minds and change hearts kept them numb and content, living a completely fabricated reality. No part of the machine was alive or human.
There were some who had been freed who wanted to return to the numb of fantasy, but most who had awakened to the reality of the machine sought freedom from it and freedom for the masses still stuck inside of it. Attacks by these former sleepers were bothersome but made hardly a dent in the operation of the machine. It wasn't until the hero, Neo, made the choice to wake up that the machine was in trouble.
The machine was not ready to deal with an individual.
The real world has a similar machine. Some people call it politics, some name it the adversary, but all of us feel it there.
It wants to feed off of you, keep you living in fantasy and numb with contentment. You stop thinking about being an 'individual.' It teaches you that there is power in numbers, that you are a Democrat or you are a Republican, you are liberal or conservative, you follow this leader or that one. The machine fears dealing with you one on one.
Influencing religion, the machine encourages you to stand behind a cross, a symbol, a preacher, one specific belief, and not beside it. Be content as one of the masses in the mass. It doesn't ask you what *you* should do, but what would Jesus do? What catch phrase would Jesus quote to himself for personal motivation or were his actions motivated by a constant need for growth? Was he 'content' to be just a carpenter from Nazareth without sin?
We see the presence of the machine in politics and big business where it is more fluid. We know that money, power and influence are the drug of choice among the elite in D.C. and Hollywood.
The machine knows this too, and has you pick a star to follow. Get behind this 'maverick' or get behind 'so and so's cause.' It wants you to be a follower, not a leader. There can't be too many leaders, it would convince you, only because leaders are individuals. The lullaby it sings to you is a list of don'ts: Don't question God. Don't question your religion. Don't question your party. Don't question your community organizer. Be content. Stay asleep.
It deals with individuals the only way it can. If you question its program, try to wake people up to its purpose, you are a racist, nazi, fascist, hatemonger, liberal, conservative, fag, homophobe, zealot... Putting you back into a group. The machine doesn't really care which group you are in, left or right, right or wrong, so long as it doesn't have to deal with you one on one.
It is not programmed to deal one on one. It knows the strength and power of one and does all it can to convince you that you are part of a collective. It even placates us with warm ideas to dispel the loneliness of individuality like: "we are the world," "one world government." It is so much easier to deal with you that way. It can keep you numb if you believe that you are one person in a world of billions. You have no real power in a government so vast, just stand behind your leader.
What it fears most is the power one person has on another. The machine doesn't want you to wake up your neighbor. It doesn't even want you to KNOW your neighbor.
Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido when she was eleven and kept in his back yard for a decade. When his crimes were finally discovered, his neighbors were 'outraged' that the 'system' didn't do more to keep an eye on him--even knowing they had a sex offender in the neighborhood. This is where the machine had led them. They had been asleep for a decade, while the kidnapper stole Jaycee's life.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain asked God after he had murdered his brother. In this same way, neighbors have given up their responsibility to themselves, their neighbors, their community and their city, and given it over to 'the system.'
In The Matrix, Neo is given a choice: Take the red pill and be shown how the machine works or take the blue pill and stay content to feed it.
Take the red pill America. It's time to see the machine, wake up, become an individual and destroy its power.
There were some who had been freed who wanted to return to the numb of fantasy, but most who had awakened to the reality of the machine sought freedom from it and freedom for the masses still stuck inside of it. Attacks by these former sleepers were bothersome but made hardly a dent in the operation of the machine. It wasn't until the hero, Neo, made the choice to wake up that the machine was in trouble.
The machine was not ready to deal with an individual.
The real world has a similar machine. Some people call it politics, some name it the adversary, but all of us feel it there.
It wants to feed off of you, keep you living in fantasy and numb with contentment. You stop thinking about being an 'individual.' It teaches you that there is power in numbers, that you are a Democrat or you are a Republican, you are liberal or conservative, you follow this leader or that one. The machine fears dealing with you one on one.
Influencing religion, the machine encourages you to stand behind a cross, a symbol, a preacher, one specific belief, and not beside it. Be content as one of the masses in the mass. It doesn't ask you what *you* should do, but what would Jesus do? What catch phrase would Jesus quote to himself for personal motivation or were his actions motivated by a constant need for growth? Was he 'content' to be just a carpenter from Nazareth without sin?
We see the presence of the machine in politics and big business where it is more fluid. We know that money, power and influence are the drug of choice among the elite in D.C. and Hollywood.
The machine knows this too, and has you pick a star to follow. Get behind this 'maverick' or get behind 'so and so's cause.' It wants you to be a follower, not a leader. There can't be too many leaders, it would convince you, only because leaders are individuals. The lullaby it sings to you is a list of don'ts: Don't question God. Don't question your religion. Don't question your party. Don't question your community organizer. Be content. Stay asleep.
It deals with individuals the only way it can. If you question its program, try to wake people up to its purpose, you are a racist, nazi, fascist, hatemonger, liberal, conservative, fag, homophobe, zealot... Putting you back into a group. The machine doesn't really care which group you are in, left or right, right or wrong, so long as it doesn't have to deal with you one on one.
It is not programmed to deal one on one. It knows the strength and power of one and does all it can to convince you that you are part of a collective. It even placates us with warm ideas to dispel the loneliness of individuality like: "we are the world," "one world government." It is so much easier to deal with you that way. It can keep you numb if you believe that you are one person in a world of billions. You have no real power in a government so vast, just stand behind your leader.
What it fears most is the power one person has on another. The machine doesn't want you to wake up your neighbor. It doesn't even want you to KNOW your neighbor.
Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido when she was eleven and kept in his back yard for a decade. When his crimes were finally discovered, his neighbors were 'outraged' that the 'system' didn't do more to keep an eye on him--even knowing they had a sex offender in the neighborhood. This is where the machine had led them. They had been asleep for a decade, while the kidnapper stole Jaycee's life.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain asked God after he had murdered his brother. In this same way, neighbors have given up their responsibility to themselves, their neighbors, their community and their city, and given it over to 'the system.'
In The Matrix, Neo is given a choice: Take the red pill and be shown how the machine works or take the blue pill and stay content to feed it.
Take the red pill America. It's time to see the machine, wake up, become an individual and destroy its power.
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A comparison showing Mannie Garcia’s photograph of Obama next to Shepard Fairey’s ‘Progress’ and ‘Hope’ posters. The portrait of Obama by Shepard Fairey is a stencil portrait. Fairey created a stencil over a scanned and enlarged version of the photograph that was slightly tilted according to various articles. Fairey and a gallery that represents him has stated that he did in fact use the Garcia photograph as the base image for his Obama posters according to news articles. The Assosicated Press claims to own the copyright to Garcia's photograph and desire compensation from Shepard Fairey. Fairey's lawyer states that Fairey did nothing wrong and that is use of the image falls under fair use. Do you think his use of the image falls under fair use? Since the photograph itself is not widely known some lawyers have suggested that Fairey's use does not fall under fair use. In order for it to be fair use there must be a dialogue between the old work and the new work that is obvious to the viewer-- obvious to the majority of the public. Unfortunatey for Shepard the majority of people, including Garcia and the AP, did not make the connection between Garcia's photograph and Fairey's Obama posters. So did Fairey fail at fair use? If so, did he willfully infringe on the photograph? If it is infringement could former workers of the Obama campaign, such as Yosi Sergant and Evolutionary Media Group, be held responsible?
