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Maoist movie reviews
"The Matrix Reloaded" (2003)
The Matrix Reloaded
Directed by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski
Starring Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Keanu Reeves, with
an appearance by Cornel West
Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures, Silver Pictures,
NPV Entertainment and Heineken Branded Entertainment
Rated R
138 minutes
2003
2010 January
The "Matrix" trilogy is obviously inspired by "Alice in Wonderland"
of 1865 as Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) makes direct reference to it
in the trilogy, but it was in the 1820s that John Henry Newman wrote:
"I used to wish the Arabian Tales were true: my imagination ran on
unknown influences, on magical powers, and talismans ... I thought
life might be a dream, or I an Angel, and all this world a deception,
my fellow-angels by a playful device concealing themselves from me,
and deceiving me with the semblance of a material world."(1)
On a later occasion, this reviewer might discuss what is in common
between Christianity, existentialism, solipsism, and certain
instances of pseudo-Marxism, but want I want to say right now is that
some ideas that seem new are in fact not. Case in point is the idea
of addressing the difference between Christianity and Marxism, with
an ancillary discussion of how to relate to idolatry that exists
concretely and is not just a monotheistic concept used against
differing religious practices, and how to relate to the anti-idolatry
of the oppressed in struggling against class and national oppression.
In fact, Cornel West, who appears in "Reloaded" as Councillor West,
is an example of someone who has discussed Christianity, idolatry,
and Marxism (and Feuerbach, who himself discusses polytheism).
Whereas this reviewer has disagreements with both John Henry Newman
(in his various stages) and Cornel West, intellectuals do need to
think carefully about why they call themselves Marxist and not
Christian. This is important in its own right, apart from West's
biography. It is not just a few individuals who should be thinking
about such topics.
Discussing with Neo the machines that the human city Zion uses on the
engineering level, Councillor Hamann raises that humans and machines
need each other. Facing proletarian revolution, the Catholic Church
argued in the nineteenth century that capitalists and workers needed
each other while criticizing both capitalists and workers.
Capitalists and workers struggle, but they need each other materially
and spiritually and must come together again and again and live with
each other. Workers must accept inequality. Such argument may be more
bourgeois than petty-bourgeois, but "The Matrix Reloaded" brings
together diverse ideologies in petty-bourgeois fashion: Christianity,
atheistic existentialism, and Marxism. Morpheus himself alternately
seems religious and materialist. Plenty of commentators have noticed
the "Matrix" trilogy's wide appeal such that both Catholics and
supposed Marxists find things to like in the trilogy, but what is not
as often discussed is that the petty bourgeoisie is prone to adopting
contradictory ideas. A little bit of Marxism here, a bit of New Age
there, a bit of Jesus, existentialist and proto-existentialist babble
-- it is easy to come across Amerikans exhibiting these things in
combination. In addition, some combinations are instances of
polytheism, which is prevalent in First World imperialist countries
and is not only petty-bourgeois in origin.
The proletariat does not need the bourgeoisie, but there is no
proletariat with U.$. citizenship. Amerikans have complaints about
things from unemployment to bank overdraft fees, but they are
themselves exploiters who need exploited workers, in the Third World.
First World employees and First World employers do need each other in
jointly exploiting the Third World. Cornel West would disagree with
this reviewer on the parasitism question connected to finance
capital. On the other hand, West does not call himself a Marxist.
West is openly a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, not
a "communist" party.
This reviewer has heard supposed Cornel West fans use the words
"Christianed-out" in reference to people discussing the details of
Christianity, but whose reasons for calling themselves atheist may be
stronger than their critics'. "Christianed-out" applied correctly
would mean that one has had much contact with Christianity and is
done with it. Christianity is pervasive in the English language -- so
pervasive that it appears in so-called Marxism -- so it is true in a
sense that an English-speaking scientific communist might be
Christianed-out. However, the insinuation by the incorrect use of
"Christianed-out" is that people who seem more familiar with
Christianity must be clinging to it, as if Cornel West does not. It
is an impossible situation where the more deeply one opposes
something, the more suspected, selectively, he or she is of
supporting it, even if her or his reasons for being atheist are
better than others' reasons. Partly, it's that intellectually lazy
people have a need to knock others who are more advanced. There is no
conversion issue here at MIWS and of course a conversion from
Christianity to atheism is not what John Henry Newman underwent, but
the historical controversy about Newman partly concerns that when he
disagreed with Catholicism as an Anglican, he didn't believe what he
was saying, allegedly (and was a dissembler as an open Catholic, too).
"Now I ask, Why could not Mr. Kingsley be open? If he intended
still to arraign me on the charge of lying, why could he not say
so as a man? Why must he insinuate, question, imply, and use
sneering and irony, as if longing to touch a forbidden fruit,
which still he was afraid would burn his fingers, if he did so?
Why must he "palter in a double sense," and blow hot and cold in
one breath?"
"Controversies should be decided by the reason; is it legitimate
warfare to appeal to the misgivings of the public mind and to
its dislikings? Any how, if Mr. Kingsley is able thus to
practise upon my readers, the more I succeed, the less will be
my success. If I am natural, he will tell them, "Ars est celare
artem;" if I am convincing, he will suggest that I am an able
logician; if I show warmth, I am acting the indignant innocent;
if I am calm, I am thereby detected as a smooth hypocrite; if I
clear up difficulties, I am too plausible and perfect to be
true."
According to Councillor West, "comprehension is not a requisite of
cooperation." There are Christians who to a varying degree hold that
belief in God does not require understanding, and there are those who
believe democratic centralism is cooperation without comprehension
and who simultaneously believe in leading people outside the
communist party on a false and prejudicial basis, when in fact
democratic centralism is based on science and cooperation does
require comprehension in the long term. West may believe what he
wants, because he does not claim to be Marxist-Leninist or Marxist.
Cornel West is not done with Christianity. West is openly Christian.
He disowns Marxism, though he is more knowledgeable about Marxist
philosophy than the majority of people calling themselves Marxist.
West does not call himself "communist." He has openly supported
Barack Obama, and he makes no secret of campaigning for the
Democratic Party. So, in four ways West is a good model for those who
are more ambiguous or do things less openly. West has worked through
various ideas and decided what he is not: not an atheist, not a
Marxist, not a "Stalinist," etc.
Instead of penalizing Morpheus for violating discipline as would
happen to an insubordinate officer in a revolutionary armed struggle
situation, the council of Zion chooses to acquiesce to Morpheus'
insubordinate action in pursuit of the Oracle and implies that
Commander Lock might not comply with the council's wishes. The
council has an expectation of discipline, but appears fickle.
Anti-Leninists whom might be called "anarchist" or "democratic" will
applaud Morpheus, notwithstanding Zion's resemblance to a
dictatorship based on superstition, psychoactive drugs, and
personality cults. In the non-fiction world, there may be
disagreement about one spy providing intelligence who may be one of
hundreds of sources, but if unity is still absent on such an
important question as the Oracle after years have passed since the
question was first raised, there is bound to be disunity on lesser
questions, if not in words spoken, then in practice. Lack of struggle
to reach intellectual unity may result in temporary practical unity,
but kill unity later. Morpheus says that his beliefs do not require
others to believe them. That attitude is generally fine in an
imperialist country with an exploiter majority, but not in
application to others in a communist party. Later in the movie,
Morpheus' ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, is destroyed -- perhaps a
redeeming moment of the movie. Another good moment is when the
Oracle's protector, Seraph, says something to the effect that enemies
can only be discerned in struggle. Struggle should not be understood
as just struggling to get people to go along with something against
their beliefs and reservations.
Cornel West himself does not claim to be Marxist and is openly a
Christian, which is not just biographical trivia, but something that
manifests in his thought. Nonetheless, there is such a sparseness of
even nominal Marxism in the U.$. academy that Cornel West-influenced
people come to be known as Marxists, and even self-identify as
"Marxist" despite conscious and unconscious disagreements with
Marxism. In some departments, most of someone's exposure to various
topics in Marxism may be via West. In other ways, West's thought
comes to be confused with Marxism or amalgamated with pseudo-Marxism.
The most ridiculous are people supposedly defending Cornel West's
ideas, but criticizing others just for reading the Bible. They may
call themselves Marxists or political economists for academic and
political career purposes, but one might wonder: What explains the
critics' ignorance of West's own ideas? Did they really read West, or
did they just pretend to? Did they not absorb anything in college? Do
they pretend affinity with West to create an impression of themselves
or recruit (for) Democrats? West does not hide his Christianity. His
thought is Christian, and he knows it. West says again and again that
he is a Christian and not a Marxist and explains his positions
extensively; it is hard to understand how alleged Cornel West fans
miss that. By contrast, various self-described "Marxists" are
ignorant of Christian influences, but are Christian, despite thinking
themselves less ignorant and more intelligent than "stupid" religious
people. More common than actual atheists who are confused Cornel West
fans are Christian pseudo-Marxists. Among these are so-called
Marxists with a flippant, even if atheistical, attitude regarding
religion questions, who never really grasp dialectical materialism.
That is not to say that people in the Third World engaged in armed
struggle in a people's war are Catholic if they have not got around
to studying Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach" in depth, but the situation
in the West is different.
Christian pseudo-Marxism is prevalent in the United $tates, to some
extent because priority is given to recruiting Amerikans over both
building scientific communist parties, and doing united front work
with people who do not need to be Marxists. At the same time that
Christianity is tolerated, anti-Catholicism is popular in the United
$tates, the result being that Christianity manifests in "Marxism" and
communist parties while some open Catholics who belong in united
fronts are rejected. In "The Matrix Reloaded," there is a struggle
just to reach a point of choosing how to surrender to the machines.
Even the One himself is suspect as another form of control. The
essence of united fronts and multi-stage revolution isn't
capitulation or accommodation, but "Reloaded" reminds this reviewer
of struggle's having multiple stages, deep infiltration of the
communist movement, and pseudo-Marxist fascism's role in preserving
imperialism.
Catholicism deserves contempt in the Third World, particularly in
contexts where Catholicism hinders the development of proletarian
armed struggle. Despite Third World Catholics' being more advanced
than First World Catholics Catholicism does not warrant the same
contempt in the First World, because in the First World speaking
generally there are just shades of bourgeois politics and varieties
of non-scientific thought unconnected to revolutionary struggle. The
exploited masses in the First World who could disdain Catholicism on
a proletarian basis are few in the first place. In the United $tates,
a superficial approach to Catholicism singling Catholicism out
reflects the influence of the Ku Klux Klan and anti-intellectual
parasite/settler movements, including fascist movements that
sometimes appear falsely to value science and reason. Apart from
this, with no armed struggled inside the First World and no white
worker revolution, the Catholic Church could have a role to play in a
united front against U.$. imperialism, more than some Protestant
sects concentrated within U.$. borders; recognizing this is not to
agree with Catholic ideas in the communist movement. The Catholic
Church openly says that it is indifferent to social systems under the
condition that they allow the church to carry out its work. The
Catholic Church is fine with private property systems that allow it
to operate. The Catholic Church is against socialism, but the present
international united front against U.$. imperialism is not seeking to
install "socialism" in the United $tates, which would just be
fascism. In places where the proletariat has started to expropriate
the bourgeoisie from property that could better support the Catholic
Church, the Church gets off the bus. So, the Catholic Church needs to
be seen in the correct context, one that is neither feudalism nor
socialist revolution for the most part, nor a situation where
Catholic corporatism is likely to dominate in North America.
Communists will still have occasion to criticize the Catholic Church
at this time, but this writer would not say that the Catholic Church
is counterrevolutionary if that could be misunderstood as meaning
that "atheist" anti-capitalist opponents of the Church are
necessarily revolutionary or progressive. Because of the world
capitalist economy and the uneven development of certain factors,
so-called atheists and so-called anti-capitalists in the First World
require scrutiny.
The principal contradiction is between imperialism and the oppressed
nations. Monotheism is more prevalent in Muslim oppressed nations.
There is a larger scientific elite in the imperialist countries, but
the population does not increase in scientific understanding and
polytheism is more prevalent in the imperialist countries than in
Muslim oppressed nations. Both supposed atheists and the supposedly
anti-idolatrous in the imperialist countries are idolatrous (so in
the case of some confused Cornel West fans it's not just a matter of
choosing "atheism" or Christianity). Historically, polytheism is
supposed to become more advanced and give way to monotheism, but the
First World is stuck in worship of technology, worship of a
technocratic elite, worship of celebrities, worship of academic
celebrities, worship of sports teams, worship of basketball-playing
Amerikan leaders, worship of therapists and psychics, worship of
gurus, worship of style, idolatry of psychotropic drugs, astrology,
Christmas shopping, idolatry of false economic theories, idolatry of
Amerikans, the First World working class/"middle class" or white
people as a force of progress, idolatry of the films of the Big Six
movie studios including Warner Bros., and worship of romantic
partners as in "The Matrix Reloaded" to the point of risking the
oppressed's success because there is a difference that does matter
and is recognizable and actionable -- a paradoxical situation where
so-called atheism resulting from the development of capitalism, and a
retarded polytheism, are both present. No reinvention of Christianity
or "Marxism" will change the basic situation. People in the Third
World sense the stagnant polytheism of the First World. Of course,
many discuss Christianity and Islam without discussing the classes to
which the Christians and Muslims belong. And, dialectical materialism
makes the monotheism-versus-polytheism topic anachronistic
intellectually. However, the difference between monotheism and
polytheism is important in considering how revolutionary
consciousness in the oppressed nations might manifest.
Because of contemplative materialism and other tendencies such as
nationalism, both "atheists" and open Christians in the imperialist
countries are idolaters. Some idolaters, certain Christians, may be
preferable to others. This idea should not be transferred
simplistically to the Third World nation context. In the Third World,
the relationship between atheism and dialectical materialism may be
stronger. There is the class structure there to put atheists on a
revolutionary path; in the First World, there are just different
exploiter classes. In addition, as even some monotheists have said,
atheism may actually clear the way for monotheism by eliminating
existing idolatry, which is prevalent even in the Third World.
Anti-idolatrous atheism is more likely in oppressed nations resisting
imperialism, whereas intellectually lazy so-called atheists in the
First World are themselves disposed to decadent and reactionary
polytheism. So, perhaps Third World people should not tolerate
idolaters in their countries, but should tolerate atheists who aren't
apostates running around blaspheming. Perhaps monotheists should
accommodate dialectical-materialist atheists as anti-idolaters while
distinguishing dialectical materialists from imperialist spies and
lackeys.
For some, the "Matrix" trilogy provokes thinking about whether one is
too attached to tangible and sensuous things (an incredulity or
suspiciousness common to various kinds of materialist and idealist
and not very significant itself). At the same time, in the trilogy,
almost all uses of the words "God" and "Jesus" would be considered
"in vain," not necessarily expressive of belief in God. Some
characters are spiritual, but one says he doesn't believe in this
"stuff" (although, he does occasionally). Thus, the "Matrix" trilogy
suggests an atheism opposed to idolatry. In reality, though, one
could stop believing in heavenly deities, but idolize various earthly
things, and in fact this is what happens with most of those in the
First World who are thought to go from theism to materialism: a
transition to a form of polytheistic idolatry. One of the bases of
this is that most materialism in the First World is contemplative
materialism. There are multiple factors and levels of mediation, but
the reason is ultimately imperialist super-profit. In the First
World, there is not a movement from polytheism to monotheism, to
dialectical materialism, nor a movement from polytheism to
monotheism, to polytheism, to dialectical materialism. The process is
arrested. No amount of repetition of Marx's narcotic metaphor can
change the reality that hard-core monotheists in Muslim capitalist
countries are closer to becoming dialectical materialists than
so-called atheists in the First World of the Bill Maher variety, with
a flimsy foundation. These monotheists are not going to be
"progressing" through Western Liberalism and individualism, despite
the State Department's efforts to spread alcoholism and heavy metal
music, and contrary to Trotskyism they are not going to be becoming
imperialists and other parasites. In connection to changing from
monotheism, Marxism is more commonly expressed in Islamic terms than
Liberalism and Democratic Party politics are expressed in Islamic
terms.
Engaging in science without dialectical materialism, one can end up
in idolatry of nature as a reified abstraction outside human history
or in infinite contemplation of physical things detached from each
other. But, Feuerbach himself discusses that contemplation leads to
God as an abstract symbol for the unknown and what might be
forgotten. On that point, the present writer does not disagree.
Arguably, Marx's critique of contemplative materialism is opposed to
both polytheism and monotheism, which MIWS has suggested are mutually
constitutive. The development of theism and idolatry is not
everywhere the same, though, and there are differences that coincide
with global class differences. At this time, despite the relationship
between polytheism and monotheism, Marxists have greater
confrontation with what may be identified as polytheism -- resulting
from, and existing in the form of, pragmatism, subjectivism, and
other tendencies. Marxists have greater confrontation with "atheists"
in the First World who are actually polytheists.
Bracketing the discussion concerning whether atheism is the
alternative to Catholicism and vice versa, John Henry Newman's
observation in his Apologia that there is an objective
tendency toward atheism is a matter for dispute. It is true that
Catholicism is disintegrating intellectually and declining
organizationally in the West, but it would be more accurate to say
that the tendency is toward polytheism in imperialist countries with
the situation in oppressed nations and the few exploited-majority
imperialist countries being different. There is not one world with
one tendency. The polytheism of the First World is not a reflection
of global progress in science, education, production, or politics, or
of the development of democracy or sustained intellectual activity,
or of a need to instill confidence and aspiration for a long,
multigenerational struggle, but springs from and beckons back to a
dying society based on international exploitation.
Semi-Christian, semi-New Age, semi-pseudo-Marxist polytheism and
quasi-atheistic existentialism is a good thing in neither the First
World nor the Third World. Such polytheism was typical in the United
$tates before the "The Matrix" was released, with accompanying and
underlying ideas about racial diversity suitable for unity between
pot-smoking New Ager Amerikans, Baptist Amerikans, and cultural
nationalists of different U.$. internal colonies. The United $tates
has both a bourgeois class structure with super-profit to go around,
and the bucks to make a movie like "The Matrix Reloaded" with high
production values and inferior political quality. Instead of
contriving polytheistic and pseudo-monotheistic cultural solutions to
the lack of atheistic revolutionary movements in the First World and
the Third World, one should realize that there are hundreds of
millions of exploiters in the United $tates, and billions of
exploited people outside the United $tates with whom monotheism is
coupled with resistance.
Notes
1. John Henry Newman, Newman's Apologia pro Vita Sua (London:
Oxford University Press, 1913).