“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will
eventually come to believe it” -Adolf Hitler.
Everyone wants to know the truth
and many people desire to find out. No matter how much trouble it
takes people will always try their hardest to find the truth. However
once they find the truth it is hard to accept it because of the way
it hurts them. Sometimes knowing the truth can get someone in trouble
because it was told to the wrong person. In the movie The
Matrix truth
is what the characters were aiming for especially for Neo. Nietzsche
in the other hand has a brief understanding of truth; that it has to
do with interpretations and perspectives.
The
Matrix movie has a long path for Neo to find out the truth. In order
to know what the matrix was he has to give up his regular life for a
new adventure. It seems pretty confusing considering it isn't
something people see in real life. The reason why the movie is so
interesting is because of all the questions that are being asked from
the viewers and the people of Zion. One of characters in the movie
named Neo was a new member to the Zion land and a very confused one.
He asked many questions and wanted to know the truth of what was
going on. He would find out but it would have to take time and
practice. The things that happened in the movie was interesting to
know what is the truth? How do we know what is true or not? Neo was
given a chance to find the truth about the Matrix knowing he will
never go back to his regular life.
According to Nietzsche “if it is supposed to be true that there is
no truth, then there is apparently a truth after all; and if it is
not supposed to be true, it seems that we have no reason to take it
seriously,that is, accept it or its alleges
implications.”(Nietzsche3). It may seem like a complicated quote
but it is interesting to think about how truth can always be used
even when you think there is no truth. When looking at the Matrix and
how truth goes for a different direction compared to real life and
the movie. We want to know the truth but when we don't like what we
hear we tend to say it isn't true.
There are times when we find out the truth and try our hardest to
not believe it “truths are illusions we have forgotten are
illusions” (TL84;WL880-1). Most of the time we are so used to not
knowing or understanding what is true or not we make up lies to cover
the lost puzzle pieces and than we believe it is true. The truth is
most likely to be an interpretations instead of a fact at times.
Nietzsche believed that the truth is always exaggerated somehow that
the only way you can tell the truth is by saying your own way of
understanding. It is hard to tell the fact about a truth and expect
it be accurate.
Truth in the matrix is more important to understand because it takes
a long understanding and process to reach the point where Neo can
find out what he was looking for. So “Many have assumed that
Nietzsche has demonstrated that there are no facts and not truths,
but “only interpretations”and”different perspectives” on
reality”(2) When someone has an interpretation of something they
assume it on their own it is like creating your own story or like
telling a lie of the truth. The different perspectives have to do
with the view of one person and how they see the truth. When thinking
about something specific one part is more important that the other
and that is all because of how a person visualizes something.
In the movie when Neo was given to choose between two pills he was
explain that his life will change to an experience he would never
forget. In order for him to leave his life to find the truth he
would have to join this new system of life. Cypher is one of the
“rebels” that joined like Neo to find the truth and he didn't
want to be where he was anymore he said “After nine years, you know
what I realized?Ignorance is bliss” this is quoted from the movie.
He is trying to say people would like to live a live the way they
want it o be than the way it is given to them. The whole reason why
us humans have an imagination and use it a lot it let us go to a
place that we wish we can go but we know it isn't true.
Many people wish to know the truth to everything and most of the
time they wish they never heard it after they do because it catches
them by surprise. In the Matrix Neo had to first learn how to survive
this dimension of life in order to find the truth about the matrix.
There is an oracle that knows what is going to happen but she is the
free car to help she only gives him a small clue to go where he needs
to head for. Neo later find out the truth about the Matrix an how it
was a computer generated dream world that humans are like computers.
He found out all about the war between the humans and the robots.
Nietzsche didn't think that truth was a fact and that life is all a
fiction. He said that the truth is what you make of it. Nietzsche
believed that “Despite the recent emphasis on his claims about
truth, few would deny that Nietzsche’s ultimate importance is
connected to what he has to say about values, especially to the
challenge he offers to received values.” (3) The value of life is
up to the way a person and what they have to say bout truth. Neo's
value of life was to give up what he loves to do and what he wanted
most was to find the truth and to be the man that can help the people
of Zion.
The word truth has numerous amount of
ways explaining it. Truth is a very complicated term that is easy to
understand but hard to explain. Finding the truth is something
everyone wants but it is worth a trip to get it so you would have to
fight and try your hardest. Nietzsche said that truth was hard to
putout completely accurate and it was hard to get it out. Neo wanted
to find the truth but had to do everything he was told to do by
others and by himself. Together truth is hard to find and it can make
someone happy to find out or not so happy.
Cited sources
*Clark, Maudemarie.Nietzsche on Truth
and Philosophy.The press syndicate of university of cambridge. 1990
*The Matrix.Dir.Andy and Larry
Wachowski.Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss,
Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano.Warner Brothers,1999.
