"THE MATRIX" – The Real State of the Union

“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth … That you are a slave.”
–Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), The Matrix

By Ron Lee
The Verbal Assassin
“Reality” is exactly as we are led to believe in this day and age of a virtual society. Daily, we are programmed with mainstream propaganda. Their truth is only someone’s opinion, and the masses slurp it up buying every last moment of the “news”, taking it as gospel. Forgotten are the realities of the world; the horrors; the beauties; the tortures; the grandeur of it all. Reality exists now only as conspiracy and extremism, both sides’ fringes finding common truth that the people aren’t the problem; that greed is ultimately to blame. But, commonality is as passe as yesterday’s technology, and unity dies leaving few left fighting to free America from their bondage to this matrix.
People do really believe that what they are told on the nightly news and by their representatives; that what they read on the internet and are told by their bartenders is true. What we have lost, that had allowed us to see clearly, is the use of logic, our ability to think, coupled with our morality, our compass. It gave us reason. This quality has been several generations removed, instead replaced by emotional fanaticism. The ‘how it makes you feel’ is more important than what it was in the first place or what caused it. It doesn’t matter now if things have a simple solution, a root cause or a clearly defined definition. It just matters how it all feels. To me, that makes this place, this time, this matrix a sad, desperate place where everyone is out for themselves and nothing true and right is safe. If it doesn’t play to the heartstrings of those in authoritative rule, it is outlaw.
Here we are today, this state of my union – frail, starving, tired from the constant nonsense fed to us. Horrified by the cluelessness. Terrified by the rule of the programmers, those who know the power of the mainstream and manipulate its every episode, broadcast, podcast, webcast and transmission.
If only it were as simple as taking the red pill to wake up. But then again, unlike most in society, I don’t believe a pill can solve my problems, heal my ails, or temper the pangs of youth. Waking for the masses is going to come much later, I am afraid. It will come when even the most conscious have been lulled back asleep by the constant flow of the matrix.
Tell me, what will wake you up? What will make you see that if a criminal comes at you or your child with a gun in a mass casualty scenario, running at him with a pair of scissors, as prescribed by the Department of Homeland Security, is crazy; that if you had, and were trained in the use of, your own gun, you could stop the criminal. Or, that if schools actually provided security, with armed guards at multiple points, school shootings would rarely, if ever. Why can’t those that view guns as evil see that gun ownership really has nothing to do with anything except keeping our government in check, and from having the ability to murder us! All they have to do is read a history book to see that the founders had just shaken off tyranny – and that private citizens not only owned muskets, but guns like the pickle gun, cannons, and complete warships; there was no restriction on the types of arms owned!
What will make you see that if we keep from throwing our garbage about our world, the planet would be a much better place and for much longer? That our actions do have a consequence when it comes to our surroundings. While science is never settled, our effect on our planet is substantial. We could demand, as a people, that we have better systems in place for energy and waste, but we disagree with those alternative methods, or we simply don’t want to rock the boat (with the exception of our Facebook posts) and actually do something.
Perhaps the people will never wake up. God knows there are times when I wish I never had. 
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” –Morpheus
Just remember this, America was built by those who dared to challenge their “reality”; to dream beyond their bonds and break through the matrix to be free. I wonder what they would say if they could see us today? I know one thing, they’d be ashamed that we are right back where they started; yoked by a governance that dictates to its people and maintains the perception that everything it does is in the people’s best interest.
Ahhh, how amazing it would be for history to repeat itself. Perhaps it would even turn out better than the film sequels, but then again, anything is better than those!