Anonymous, WikiLeaks and The Matrix Generation

Throughout history, each new generation has questioned and rebelled against what had come before. Generations X and Y grew up with the dot-com bubble and ubiquitous digital technology. This group of teens and young adults today has largely been viewed as tamed, apathetic, and glued to their screens. Yet, now the little known underground subculture of hackers that was brought to worldwide attention by WikiLeaks seems to call for a shift in this view. Here arose a pocket of passionate activists united through sharing ideas beyond cultural and geopolitical boundaries in the spirit of the open source principles. This has brought fire to a public contaminated by cynicism. Perhaps this generation is following the age-old tradition of youthful idealism rebelling against the inequities of the established order after all.

Each age has had a literary imagination that guided it. There was the Tolkien masterpiece, Lord of the Rings and then Star Trek. Now, The Matrix has become a central story of this generation. What is emerging now is the Matrix Generation.



In an article called Generation W: WikiLeaks Ignites a New Generation of Hacktivists, Urizenus Sklar (Jan 4, 2011) described how the challenges of this age have ignited a new generation of hacktivists that is indicative of an emerging worldwide culture of dissent among the younger generation. He characterizes this as reacting to the governmental abuses of the George W. Bush era. But, in reality the current malaise goes much deeper than a particular regime, as an ever evolving cancer of corruption and abuse of power has been emanating from Washington for some time and has become pervasive as a corporate and government model all over the world. People are now starting to confront in a more widespread fashion the systemic moral corruption that has been building and WikiLeaks has catalyzed and empowered this backlash ...

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Escaping the Matrix: Are you ready for the red pill?

‘The defining dramatic moment in the film The Matrix occurs just after Morpheus invites Neo to choose between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill promises "the truth, nothing more." Neo takes the red pill and awakes to reality--something utterly different from anything Neo, or the audience, could have expected. What Neo had assumed to be reality turned out to be only a collective illusion, fabricated by the Matrix and fed to a population that is asleep, cocooned in grotesque embryonic pods ... In the Matrix world, true reality and perceived reality exist on entirely different planes.’

‘The story is intended as metaphor, and the parallels that drew my attention had to do with political reality. This article offers a particular perspective on what's going on in the world--and how things got to be that way--in this era of globalization. From that red-pill perspective, everyday media-consensus reality--like the Matrix in the film--is seen to be a fabricated collective illusion.’

Escapar de la Matriz: ¿Está Ud. listo para la píldora roja?

‘El momento dramático definitivo en la película La Matriz ocurre inmediatamente a continuación de la invitación de Morfeo a que Neo escoja entre una píldora roja y una azul. La píldora roja promete "la verdad, nada más". Neo toma la píldora roja y despierta a la realidad - algo tremendamente diferente de todo lo que Neo, o el público, pudieran haber esperado. Lo que Neo había tomado por la realidad resulta ser sólo una ilusión colectiva, inventada por la Matriz y alimentada a una población que está adormecida, en grotescas incubadoras embrionarias ... En el mundo de la Matriz la verdadera realidad y la realidad percibida transcurren en planos completamente diferentes.’

‘La intención de la trama es metafórica, y el paralelo que atrajo mi atención tiene que ver con la realidad política. Este artículo presenta una perspectiva singular sobre lo que está pasando en el mundo -y cómo las cosas llegaron a ser de este modo- en esta era de globalización. Desde esa perspectiva de la píldora roja, la realidad de los medios de comunicación y del consenso cotidiano general -como la Matriz en la película- aparecen como una ilusión colectiva inventada.’

Richard Moore, Cyberjournal.Org

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