I do not believe that we are simply sleeping while a computer feeds us images to make us feel alive. Nor do I believe that we are simply participants in a pre-designed play. The Matrix, you see, is not, in my opinion, God. It is our world...the people around us.

I want to explain that, when I say 'the world' I do not mean each individual person is conciously thinking or doing something; I mean that the world as it is today, with the collective concious that it has; the way our interactions with each other in light of social politics, the way we see things outside ourselves as not a part of us...the self-centeredness that is inherent in our thinking. Not the selfishness that we may exhibit, but the way each of us can see only outside of ourselves, not seeing ourselves as beings in a collective play but as center stage in our own play. This is the Matrix.

It is our society's idea that we must 'look out for number one,' that success equals wealth or power, that we are some how weaker if we can not 'keep up with the joneses.' Yes, for the most part I will be talking about the American society, as it is the one in which I have the most experience, but I am also talking about the ideas that are common to most societies. Things like, other people can measure our worth, that if we do not measure up to our culture's idea of what is 'good' then we are tainted in some way.

You see, I am not referring to Truth when I mention the Matrix, I am referring to all those things that oppose it.