I had to wipe Earl Grey tea spray from my computer screen as I laughed and watched the very entertaining Ron Paul is the Matrix YouTube on the Lew Rockwell Breaking News blog. The Matrix–Ron Paul connection is a perfect fit. In The Matrix (in case you live in a duct tape and plastic enrobed house without outside communication), Neo (Keanu Reeves) is given a choice by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) to take the blue pill, wake up in your bed "and believe whatever you want to believe," or, take the red pill and "stay in Wonderland and [see] how deep the rabbit hole goes." The Matrix, as Morpheus explains to Neo, is a computer generated program or "dreamworld" created by artificial intelligence (machines) to keep humanity under control and to use humans as its primary power source. As the story goes, Neo swallows the red pill, battles the nefarious Matrix Agents, and fulfills his destiny as "the one," which was to destroy the Matrix and save humanity. In our present reality, Ron Paul is our Neo; he is "the one" that may be our last and best hope to revive the essence and spirit of our (former) Constitutional Republic.
Like a splinter in my mind, to borrow another Morpheus expression, the Ron Paul YouTube video made me recall another interesting aspect of both my past and The Matrix. There is a song on The Matrix soundtrack made (more mainstream) popular by the movie called Wake Up performed by Rage Against the Machine (RATM). The album of that same name (the cover of which depicts a Vietnamese Buddhist monk burning himself to death in 1963 to protest the murder of fellow Buddhists) was released to critical acclaim in 1992. If you have heard it, you understand; if you have not, you may want to check it out. Be warned: it's a raw, politically-charged, profanity laced, anti-government, anti-establishment tirade that blasts a listener with cold, hard reality. It's a perfect compliment to The Matrix, and to me, a perfect fit with the essence and spirit of the Ron Paul movement. As the Wake Up lyrics go, we are all "…[s]till knee-deep in the system's sh**, … I'll give you a dose but it'll never come close to the rage built up inside of me, fist in the air in the land of hypocrisy… Whadda I got to do to wake you up, to shake you up, to break the structure up, 'cause blood still flows in the gutter …" Indeed it does and we are seemingly powerless to stop it, unless, of course, Ron Paul really is "the one."
I attended the July 1993 Lollapalooza RATM show in Philadelphia when the band took the stage naked but for "PMRC" taped on the band members' chests and black tape covering their mouths. They did not play that day, but they did stand there naked for 15 minutes to make their point. I was angered, as where many, but at the time, I did not know the whole story. (RATM later gave a free concert to make up for the mute-naked performance). PMRC, the "Parents Music Resource Center" was a censorship committee comprised of the "Washington Wives," Tipper Gore (Mrs. global warming Chicken Little), Susan Baker (wife of then Treasury Secretary James), Sally Nevius (wife of Washington City Council Chair John Nevius), Pam Howar (wife of Washington realtor Raymond Howar). The sickening Washington Wives reference is of course to their husbands' tentacles in the Federal Government. When I later learned the full story, I was no longer angry. Fast forward from 1993 to 2000: I was at a friends house and I recognized the song "Wake Up" while watching The Matrix for the fist time. I was angry (again) because I believed that RATM had sold out for some Hollywood bucks, but as I watched the movie I realized the song was a perfect complement to the movie's plot and underlying red pill–blue pill theme. And now in 2007, The Matrix red pill–blue pill theme and RATM's Wake Up are perfect complements to the strengthening Ron Paul movement.
RATM broke up in 2000, but in an interesting confluence of events (in my red-pill world, anyway) the band has reunited and performed several shows this year with more to come. Here's where it becomes really interesting for those that have ingested the red pill: During a show in Indio, California on April 29 the RATM lead singer Zack De la Rocha gave a speech during Wake Up referring to statements made by Noam Chomsky on the Nuremburg Standards and said:
[…] If the same laws were applied to U.S. presidents as were applied to the Nazis after World War II […] every single one of them, every last rich white one of them from Truman on, would have been hung to death and shot – and this current administration is no exception. They should be hung, and tried, and shot. As any war criminal should be. […] this whole rotten system has become so vicious and cruel that in order to sustain itself, it needs to destroy entire countries and profit from their reconstruction in order to survive. […] Wake up. [As reported by Corey Moss, MTV News].
Later, our blue pill friends Hannity & Colmes (or perhaps Agents) at Faux (alleged) News "discussed" De la Rocha's statement – while the typically annoying on-screen headline blared – "[RATM] says Bush admin[istration] should be shot." The always charming Ann Coulter (an Agent guest that day) said: "There're losers, their fans are losers…" I have no cogent defense to Ann's deep intellectual analysis, but I'd rather be a red pill loser than a blue pill A-hole any day. RATM was not done. During a subsequent concert in New York on July 28 RATM ended their set with Wake Up and De la Rocha fired back at the Faux (alleged) News blather:
A couple of months ago, those fascist mother****ers at the Fox News [sic] Network attempted to pin this band into a corner by suggesting that we said that the president should be assassinated. Nah, what we said was that he should be brought to trial as war criminal and hung and shot. THAT’S what we said. […] And we don’t back away from the position because the real assassinator is Bush and Cheney and the whole administration for the lives they have destroyed here and in Iraq. […] Wake up.
De la Rocha's delivery and the rawness and radical nature of his message may differ from Ron Paul's reasoned delivery, but the essence of their message is very similar. Every day, more and more Americans happily swallow the red pill and open their eyes to reality. In The Matrix, there is a scene where Neo asks Morpheus why his eyes hurt. Morpheus explains that it's because Neo has never really used them. The chicken hawks, hacks, liars, deceivers, and statist filth like Bush, Cheney, Romney, Giuliani, the Clintons, and many others have no clue how to deal with Ron Paul because he delivers truth. Just as they need to mischaracterize and misrepresent De la Rocha's statements (and their lackey Agents like Faux (alleged) news) they need to attack Ron Paul and attempt to label him a loon. Based on the electric response Ron Paul receives everywhere he goes, Americans are taking the red pill in droves because they fully understand our present reality and that it is leading us all to economic and societal ruin. Unless, of course, you are one of the politically-connected elites that ride our backs like we're donkeys. The illusion that is the Matrix is beginning to crumble before our eyes and the statists are very afraid. If you have not yet done so, I urge you to swallow the red pill and wake up. It may hurt for a short time, but living in a life of truth, justice, decency, and genuine freedom is far better than living in an authoritarian world of deceit, delusion, illusion, and servitude.
August 22, 2007
