Looking for “the One”? A Cynic’s Fantasy

‘Matrix’ is one of my favorite science fiction movies. In this movie, most of the human beings live the life in a virtual reality (the matrix), while their bodies are used as an energy source by the machines that have conquered the earth. A few humans have managed to escape the matrix and build up a resistance movement to break the matrix. The ruling machine class will do everything within their power to suppress this resistance. The movie is about this conflict and confrontation for the right to be free and not be a just a tool for select few!

Sometimes when I look around, I feel that this movie Matrix, to a great extent portrays the real world. The driving force as well as the reason for the existence of ruling class of politicians and business men is Power and Money. The politics mostly focuses on creation of power and the business mostly focuses on creation of riches and they help each other with their specialization and they exchange Power for Money and Money for Power.

They control all the resources. They extract the resources and convert them to products for their comfort or to increase their wealth. The common man treated as nothing but another resource; labor in the production process, the slave at their beck & call and the customer for what they produce which is a way to increase their wealth. They play with their policies so that this large mass of living resource is pacified, subdued and remain docile. The movies, the games, the TV and the religion are all used as means to keep the common man in a state to stupor. Slowly and steadily higher proportion of wealth shifts to this ruling class.

Occasionally we see some making an attempt to better the life of the society at large, to treat common man more fairly, to enable inclusive growth, to stop over exploitation of the earth’s resources, to sustain the environment and to bring about peace and harmony. This initiative is immediately snubbed. Look at some of the recent examples; Anna Hazare and Bhushans of Civil Society, Mr Thomas, former CVC, Mr. G V Ramakrishna and C B Bhave, former chairman of SEBI, Mr Tharoor former Minister, Sanjiv Bhat the IPS officer from Gujarat who has decided to take a position, Sreedharan,cheif of Delhi Metro and a host of not so famous and not so recent examples can be picked from politics, bureaucracy and social service.

Although corruption, fraud, exploitation, murder and terrorism are common currencies used by many (or most?) among ruling classes (both in business and in politics) technical faults, minor errors in judgment and even fabricated stories are blown out of proportion and exploited to suppress those who try to make a difference. I don’t claim these people are completely devoid of any errors. No human beings are. But the difference is that they mostly strive for the good of the society without being driven only by private agenda, their intentions are mostly honorable and they try to do the right thing in their endeavors, . 

Unlike in Matrix there is not going to be “the One” with superhuman abilities to save the world. The change can only come from small contribution from each one of us. We need to learn to differentiate between technical faults of those who mean good and shenanigans of those who work to maximize only their private interest. We need to support these few good men instead of indulging in self righteous criticisms about those who try or making excuses for our inaction. We need to support the former, pardon their occasional errors in judgment and support them to go forward and perform. And for this we need to learn few tricks from the ‘bad’. If we don’t learn to do this, there may be no hope in this battle.Take it or leave it… 

“What is the reason? Soon the why and the reason are gone and all that matters is the feeling. This is the nature of the universe. We struggle against it, we fight to deny it; but it is of course a lie. Beneath our poised appearance we are completely out of control”. Merv the Frenchman in Matrix Reloaded.