Movies and a Philosophy of Reality

Speaking of movies, the line starting the next paragraph is from one of my favorite movies. In fact, I probably saw only the first Star Wars movie (not the first one, but the first one released) more times in the theater than I saw this one: The Matrix . (I know the ideas below are not new, but I would be interested in others' thoughts about them.)

"I'm trying to free your mind, Neo, but I can only show you the door. You're the one who has to walk through it." (This is an approximation of the quote. I haven't seen the movie recently, and I don't have a hardcopy of the script. Not all versions online agree.) This line was spoken by Morpheus to Neo during a fight training session. The scene is from a post-apocalyptic time on Earth after humans and their machine creations have been battling viciously. The machines had all but won, and Morpheus was a leader of some of the last human survivors who were still fighting the machines. Neo was a new recruit to the cause, and Morpheus was in the process of explaining the reality of their existence while training Neo to join the battle.

The reality Morpheus was explaining was that most humans were being used by the machines to generate electricity as an energy source for the machines. The war between them had destroyed much of the previous technological base and, in an attempt to deprive the machines of solar power for fuel, the humans had somehow caused the sky to be constantly overcast. With no other adequate energy source, the machines had devised and built huge towers, each capable of holding thousands of humans who were suspended in liquid-filled pods attached to the tower. Tubes fed the humans, provided oxygen and water, and removed the waste. The small amount of electricity and warmth generated by each of the millions of humans was collected and amalgamated to provide power to the machines. The humans were kept in a constant dream-like state and were "fed" an artificial reality that made them believe they were living normal lives; they didn't realize they were in the pods.

Morpheus and his compatriots were constantly looking for new recruits among the pod dwellers. Morpheus, who some considered to be at least slightly insane because of his obsession with finding "the one," was looking for one individual he believed was the key to finally defeating the machines. He believed that Neo (an anagram of "one") was that person, and he was willing to risk everything to liberate him from his pod and train him to fight the final battle against the machines.

The dialog was impressive for a combination of factors. One was how the line was spoken by Morpheus. The timing and tone of his message, as well as Morpheus's delivery and expression, were very effective. Another factor was the buildup to the line. Since their first meeting, Morpheus had been teaching Neo about the war and how the machines had managed to dominate and use the humans. In essence, the message was that the "reality" that most people lived was actually a fantasy, and they didn't have any idea of that truth. The storyline loosely follows Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." The humans, immobilized in their pods, see only representations of reality, but they believe what they see because it is all they have ever known. Morpheus and his compatriots, however, are like the former captives in the caves who have been released and can see reality as it is instead of as weak and distorted shadows of reality. Morpheus is trying to release others from the cave.

The main reason why the movie, and the line quoted above, resonated so much with my thinking was that I've had experiences in the past in which I realized that some of my previous thoughts and "understandings" seemed more like the shadows on the cave wall than like reality. During undergrad and grad school, I began to understand how little I knew before my advanced studies, and how limited and shallow my previous intellectual life had been. Advanced education helped me to begin to "free my mind" and has allowed me to realize how much I still have to learn. The theme of the movie follows this idea: I know I understand only a small part of what there is to know and understand. I've had brief flashes of insight into a greater knowledge that is available and accessible, if I can just "free my mind."