Good and Evil, Matrix style
From Matrix Revolutions, I was pondering our perception of good and evil.
About 28 minutes in, Neo consults the Oracle, who tells him about her role.
Oracle: You and I may not be able to see beyond our own choices, but that man [the Architect] can't see past any choice.
Neo: Why not?
O: He doesn't understand them; he can't. To him they are variables in an equation, where in time each variable must be solved and counted. That's his purpose: to balance the equation.
N: What's your purpose?
O: To unbalance it.
N: Why? What do you want?
O: I want the same thing you want, Neo. And I'm willing to go as far as you are to get it.
N: The end of the war. Is it going to end?
O: One way or another.
If we take the Architect to be god, then the Oracle would be satan. The Oracle strives to change the Architect's plans, thinking they aren't right, trying to throw the equations off balance.
In this view, the god-figure is following a static plan. Intervention is only required to balance out what changes the Oracle might instigate. So if satan doesn't directly affect our world, neither will god.
Or we can take the Oracle to be god, and the Architect as satan. The Architect seeks to make sure that all equations balance, that for all the good that might be desired, an equal amount of evil is required.
Here the god-figure is always trying to unbalance the good/evil status quo towards good.
Must good and evil be actively opposed to one another? Can't it simply exist for the sake of existing? Good things happen; bad things happen. It doesn't mean that there is active intervention in either case.
O: Everything that has a beginning, has an end. I see the end coming. I see the darkness spreading. I see death. And you are all that stands in his way.
N: Smith.
O: Very soon he is going to have the power to destroy this world, but I believe he won't stop there; he can't. He won't stop until there's nothing left at all.
N: What is he?
O: He is you, your opposite, your negative, the result of the equation trying to balance itself out.
Here we see another pairing in the movie. Neo is balanced out by Smith. Ultimately what the Oracle said came to pass. "Everything that has a beginning, has an end." For Neo to win, for him to put an end to Smith, meant an end to Neo himself.
Since we idealize our religions and see good winning in the end over evil, doesn't that mean the end of good as well? Where would that leave us?
About 109 minutes into the movie, Smith makes a speech:
Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom, or truth, or perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Delusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception, temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existance that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although, only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love.
You must be able to see it Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting.
Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?
N: Because I choose to.
Smith is seeking out his own purpose by trying to understand Neo's motivation.
In our own short existence, are we fighting for something, for survival, for freedom, for truth, for peace, for love? Certainly we have a genetic predisposition to seek out survival, at least to the end of spreading our genes. Many strive to get at the heart of truth, only to perish on the neverending journey. Freedom and peace are unattainable as well, as they may seem within our grasp for a time, but then slip away. And love. Agent Smith put it well that it is in fact a means to convince ourselves that there is a purpose. Love is just a word. It is just a neurochemical response whose purpose was long ago derived as a means of genetic propogation.
In the end, Neo doesn't respond with freedom, peace, or love. He persists as a choice. He blindly moves forward as a choice, not knowing what to do otherwise. That doesn't directly answer Smith's question, but gives insight into Neo's motivation. He sees himself as the Oracle, putting the equations out of balance. He chooses to seek out change, as change can lead to something better, something more advanced, something more evolved.
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