For better or worse, the word matrix is now inextricably tied to The Wachowski (Brothers?!) ground-breaking motion picture of the same name.\u00a0 The idea that the world is a computer-generated illusion used to keep human electric storage cells quiescent has become a metaphor for all the illusions that society fabricates to control human behavior.<\/p>\n
I need to use the word for one of its other meanings.\u00a0 Merriam Webster lists definition 3a for matrix as:<\/p>\n
the natural material (such as soil or rock) in which something (such as a fossil or crystal) is embedded.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is akin to what I intend to use it for.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The world we live in and the United States of America more specifically is the matrix in which we find ourselves embedded.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if we had been fish swimming around happily in a lake and all of a sudden, the lake begins to freeze.\u00a0 What formerly was our medium of movement and breathing and where all the good things of life were found suddenly begins to contract and become cold, viscous, difficult to move in and eventually becomes our prison and our grave.<\/p>\n Or here\u2019s another analogy.\u00a0 Living in the present progressive plagued world can be compared to pollution.\u00a0 When it first begins it\u2019s hardly noticeable and is ignored because the source of the pollution is a luxury that we enjoy and the pollution doesn\u2019t seem to be worth the trouble of addressing it yet.\u00a0 Most of the time the air would be fine and only around sources of the pollution would it be noticeable.\u00a0 But as these sources become more common, eventually the poison begins to degrade the quality of life and finally becomes deadly.\u00a0 Taken to its awful conclusion the only way to survive extremely high concentrations of air pollutants would be to breath only filtered and purified air.\u00a0 People would be forced to live in pressure vessels that could exclude the poisonous exterior atmosphere.\u00a0 And even if the people come to their senses and take steps to eliminate the sources of the pollution it would take a very long time for conditions to return to normal.<\/p>\n So, we are embedded in this hostile environment.\u00a0 We can think about how we can restore the former condition and even begin to put them into practice but the situation on the ground is that for the foreseeable future it is necessary to take drastic measures just to survive in the present environment. \u00a0In the analogy of air pollution, it is necessary to artificially separate people from the toxic environment in order to survive.\u00a0 For us that means separating all the absolutely critical life functions (religion, child rearing, family life and time with friends) from the toxic environment.\u00a0 So be it.<\/p>\n What that means to me is that depending on the Republicans or Donald Trump or the Supreme Court to rescue us from the worsening situation is misguided.\u00a0 When confronted with a potentially lethal environment the only reasonable course of action is to build a shelter to survive it.\u00a0 You have to protect your children from the toxic culture.\u00a0 Home-schooling or a religious school (as long as it\u2019s actually religious), restrictions on television and other entertainment, healthy activities, screening friends and their parents for unhealthy individuals, spending time with your children and talking to them about the things in the world that aren\u2019t good for them.\u00a0 All these things play a part.\u00a0 An enormous part of your life has to be separated from the matrix in which you find yourself and this outside world has to be duplicated as a healthy version.\u00a0 All of these things are complicated and expensive both in time and money. \u00a0And each one could be the subject of a post (or a hundred books).\u00a0 Rod Dreher’s book “The Benedict Option” is a good source book for ideas.\u00a0 But first of all come to terms with the fact that it has to be done.\u00a0 So be it.\u00a0 Make the best of it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [socialpoll id=”2496569″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For better or worse, the word matrix is now inextricably tied to The Wachowski (Brothers?!) ground-breaking motion picture of the same name.\u00a0 The idea that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[929,930,928,869],"class_list":["post-2545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-a-freezing-pond-as-a-metaphor-for-progressivism","tag-embedded-in-the-matrix","tag-pollution-as-a-metaphor-for-progressivism","tag-the-benedict-option"],"yoast_head":"\n