Guide to The Matrix

[Deleted]

Nick shared this review with me, Unmasking the Administrative State: The Crisis of American Politics in the Twenty-First Century by John Marini.

You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about? —Morpheus, “The Matrix”

Pop culture references go stale pretty quickly, so it’s usually best to avoid them. But when a movie made 20 years ago reveals a genuinely interesting and important truth, it’s worth bending the rule.

In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president of the United States by millions of people who knew—or sensed—that something in American political life was deeply wrong or broken; and that Donald Trump sensed this as well and wanted to do something about it. Most of these voters couldn’t fully articulate what was wrong (neither in many cases could Trump!), but they had begun to doubt the essential truth of what they were being told. The official narrative about our government, our public life, and our culture—the story told by Washington, Hollywood, Wall Street, and Harvard—was not quite a lie, perhaps, but many had become convinced that it was not quite the whole truth either. There was “a glitch in the matrix.” And people felt it—like a splinter in their minds.

I am really looking forward to the book's arrival today. Will keep you posted on whether it was worth full price.

amgreatness.com/2019/02/15/the-indispensable-guide-to-the-matrix/

[Ozarks Tom]

A very apt comparison, it's always an uneasy feeling when you're told unverifiable things by authorities and expected to believe them at face value.