Opening week now behind us, the net is rife with speculation into the Wachowski brothers’ intentions with their symbol-laden Matrix: Reloaded. One particular point of contention is whether Zion (and the rest of the “real world”) is also a part of the Matrix or perhaps a second, container Matrix for the original 1990s NYC Matrix. This scifi convention speculation is all well and good, but when all is said and done, the Wachowski brothers have no intention of their fans being able to figure it out before Matrix: Revolutions comes out in theaters later this year.
The architect explains that
As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly, that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those that refused the program, while a minority, if unchecked, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster…
The function of the One is now to return to the Source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male, to rebuild Zion.
The Architect, the Oracle, the Merovingian, Persophone, Agent Smith–all these represent what Saul/Paul called “the principalities and powers of the air,” or what Paul-explicator Walter Wink has more simply called “the powers-that-be.” A scene from the Hebrew Bible book of Daniel may help explain. Disturbed by a vision he does not understand, Daniel fast and prays for three weeks for understanding, but receives no reprieve. Finally, the angel Gabriel arrives to explain the vision, but first offers this explanation for his delay:
Click to continue reading “Is Zion just another April Fools Day?”
In the latest installment of the Matrix trilogy we learn that Sigmund Freud had lasik surgery and was even more of a pompous prick than we’d imagined. Not only that, but he is the creator of the Matrix and goes by the hacker name of “the Architect.” (Some issues with your chosen profession, Sigmund?) 
The design of last month’s issue (the first) was intriguing. The design of this month’s issue was irresistible. (Oddly enough, last month’s issue was the same design as this month’s issue.) No ads. Inside covers decorated with nothing but gold and light grey stripes. Each page framed by a pica or two of one of the cover’s six colors, rotating through them article by article. (Oddly enough, similar to MyIrony’s colors.) Portraits of Jack White and Judith Butler (et al.) by the love child of Roy Lichtenstein and the Wall Street Journal. Paper that you can’t keep from touching, and touching again. Conversations with Borders associate, who found last issue’s design intriguing, and wonders if this issue is irresistible.
Yes, I do know it’s not Wednesday. But 
The Pietist. His virtues are many, to be sure. He is earnest, sincere, serious, forthright. He practices constant introspection—his spiritualized self-flagellation—in order to learn his vices, because to be aware of virtue is sure sign of vice. His regimented morality leads to his “principled stands” in public life, where he can showcase his honor, his integrity, which he pretends to himself is not for the benefit of putting on a show. The horror the Pietist inflicts is not his self-absorbed masochism, but his insistence that we all become Pietists, or rather, his naive assumption that we are all already Pietists—or else that we impose guilty feelings on ourselves for not being so, which is only to say the same thing. But hisgreat terror is the former Pietist, the post-Pietist, the Trickster, for she refuses to cooperate with his party’s ideology, an act the Pietist can counter only by creating his own imaginative ironies, self-contradictions, cultural incoherences, and purposeful nonchalance. But to commit such acts he must no longer be a Pietist! For what can the Pietist create except more sins to mark upon his flesh? Or should Thor become Loki in a day?
Salon asks if they’ve 
