On Misunderstanding “The Matrix” - Brief Reflection on the American “Rebel”

There is perhaps no film more erroneously interpreted than The Matrix. The global far right has coined the term “red pilled” to refer to the assimilation of a worldview rooted in white supremacy, antisemitism, racist doggerel, libertarian/uber-capitalist ideology, and pro-police, pro-military, gun-centric fascism. What all of these pernicious beliefs have in common is that they are but more vicious versions of the ideology the dominant society status quo. In “Matrix” terms, it would be as if Neo took the red pill and it presented to him an even more extreme illusion than the matrix consciousness he already inhabited. As if the killer machines who live off of human electric energy had ingeniously created a pill that was marketed underground as rebellion. It is not rebellion. Rather, it is a stimulant that deepens the insanity, the oppression, and the destruction of the state of consciousness enforced by the Matrix.

The presentation of the uber-capitalist, hyper-individualist attitude as somehow “rebellious” has long been a hallmark of American culture. The “outlaw” of the American West, the gangsters of the 1930s, the tech capitalists of the 70s and 80s and today, real estate and finance “mavericks” (like Trump), the wealth-fetishizing mogul entertainers of mainstream hip-hop are all marketed as rebels. They are the opposite of rebels. They represent the total or near total capitulation of the self to the soulless, insatiable maw of the current socio-economic order — an order that will not rest until it has consumed the systems of life of the planet or until it sputters and fragments and finally breaks down completely.