Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cyphers Choice
Is ignorance bliss? Is it worth the cost and is bliss better than joy, or is
it more like an ephemeral euphoria? Fleeting, fallacious, and truly phony. It
is not bliss, when we decide to ignore something that we have an inclination
may be greater and on a higher plane of thinking, we are signing the line on
the bottom of a contract titled A Mediocre Life. The science-fiction move,
The Matrix puts many questions and ideas in the mind of its viewers, but we
are going to analyze one that concerns our first question, with the help of the
ancient philosophers Plato and Epicurus.
In The Matrix (1999), man has been chattel-enslaved by his own
creation, machines that have become sentient, and is being used as a source
of power, literally feeding the machines need for electrical nourishment. To
make things easier the machines have plugged humanity into an artificially
constructed world dubbed the Matrix that resembles the early 21st century
world that existed before the machines conquered humanity to keep man
occupied. This world only exists digitally, and within it the human brain
interacts with software and circuitry which is interpreted as buildings, cars,
computers, and even other wired-in humans. There is a rebel group of
humans that have liberated themselves and they are fighting to free more
people from maw of the machine. Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, is the hero
of the story and is the golden goose this rebel group is trying to unplug and
sequester from the Matrix, but there is another character we are going to
focus on in this paper. Cypher, played by Joe Pantoliano, is part of the rebel
force, but hes got a problem. He doesnt like living in the real world, which
is a dark and dreary wasteland, and he wants to get plugged back into the
Matrix. He ends up arranging a deal with agents of the Matrix to betray the
rebels and kill Neo, the chosen one. In exchange he will be plugged back
into the Matrix with his memory of the insurrection wiped as an affluent
citizen of the digital realm. I believe this is vaguely understandable, but it is
not the choice I would make. We are going to compare some of the works of
some ancient philosophers to Cyphers actions to give us some perspective
on the issue.
sense of all the new clear stimuli in front of them. There are some that want
to return to the darker world of the Cave before they adapt because they
cant understand what is going on, and this is the role Cypher fills.
Platos Allegory of the Cave is a symbolic narrative of our world, the
cave is the bulk of the world we live in now and the people who win the
shadow games are people with power in our world. Plato believed there was
a world on a higher level called the world of forms and this is the parallel to
the world outside of the cave. Plato believed that those who escaped from
the cave or who found the higher world of truth and intellect, should do
what they could to free the others from the cave. This is what the rebel crew
in the Matrix was seeking to do, but Cypher was one who wanted to go back
to the Matrix and enjoy its artificial pleasures, this was even foreshadowed
by the fact that he made his own form of liquor while on the
Nebuchadnezzar, the rebel ship.
Plato would have thought that Cyphers actions were those of a menial
mind, wanting to descend back into the darkness of the Matrix, quoting
Homer Plato says, Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to
endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?
(Platos Allegory of the Cave) Those who were fighting the machines may
have lived fearful, dismal lives but theirs is the one worth living in Platos
eyes. Continuing with the rebels, they sought to help their fellow humans
out of the matrix, but Cyphers decision proves that this altruistic fight is not
of worth to him. Plato would have philosophically relegated Cypher to the
ranks of poor souls in the cave had he seen The Matrix, meaning Cypher is a
being content with less, a denizen of darkness.
Epicurus, from whom the word epicurean derives, would look at Cypher
differently. Hedonism comes from his writings, although it is not quite what
most people today may think it is. Epicurus believed that we should do all
we can to maximize the amount of pleasure we may experience. In his
writings he suggests a form of strategy in this pursuit, in that we must resist
lesser pleasure in order to gain greater ones. You could sum up much of
what he wrote on hedonism in one quote,
It is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently and
honourably and justly, nor again to live a life of prudence, honour, and
justice without living pleasantly. And the man who does not possess
the pleasant life, is not living prudently and honourably and justly, and
the man who does not possess the virtuous life, cannot possibly live
pleasantly. (Epicurus, The Extant Remains, pg. 613, translated by Cyril
Bailey)
To live a life of real pleasure we must be honorable, virtuous, and
circumspect concerning our pleasures, and to cheat ones self of living a life
of pleasure is actually a dishonorable act.
Epicurus would have understood why Cypher did what he did, this is
Cyphers pursuit of pleasure, but Epicurus would not have saluted what he
did. It was dishonorable for him to betray and kill his crewmates and
potentially doom humanity to indefinite captivity. If the scenario was such
that Cypher could detach himself from the meliorist fighters without the cons
of capture, Epicurus may not have frowned upon what he did, although I do
not believe he would have repeated the actions himself. The leisurely life
within the Matrix is definitely pleasurable in many ways, if you can hack the
system or score some leg-up deal.
who act to control the nations, and those who take no action at all, who
couldnt even be considered spectators. My grievance is with those who
permit their thoughts to be conscripted to pre-fabricated boxes and assume
pre-determined identities. It is easy to acquiesce to the bio-chemical
machinery of the body, but the emergent property which is mind, keen to
harmony and form of organization, must take more control. Humanity could
not have progressed as far as it has without some discipline, and if we just
writhe in blissful ecstasy, figuratively speaking, we will hinder and retard the
further progress and development that lay before us. I may only present
criticism and no complete solutions, but if a greater percentage of the world
population would strive to learn the strategies of enemies in this real-world
version of chess, either internal or external, then could not the game be
won?
Plato would side with me, in that people should strive to escape from
the cave, or accept liberation, then continue forward in the higher world of
intellect, in turn freeing others trapped below. Epicurus believed that only
those who had a desire to participate in politics should, so he is more lenient
towards this group, but there are still some who must assume this role, and
an honorable life cannot be ignored. Ignorance is not bliss.