Breaking Free from the Matrix of Ideology

How Beliefs are Your Operating System & How to Set yourself Free

Imagine you're coming home, and your neighbor tells you that the President of the United States is talking with people about their concerns in your neighborhood.

Surprised, you walk into your home and go relax on the couch.

Then you get the text.

You're next.

The President will be coming to your home in the next 5 minutes.

Time slows down, and you're thinking about how the conversation might go. What he might ask, what you might say, what you really want to say but don't know if you should.

Knock, Knock, Knock…You hear the knocking on the door…

Believing that the President is knocking on your door is far different from any other knock.

Beliefs are far more than just a set of passive ideas we think are true. They impact our thoughts, feelings, and actions. They provide us with a way to interpret our world, give it meaning, and guide our behavior.

But it goes far deeper than even that.

Beliefs are a foundational layer that determines what is true about the world and what that means for us.

They actively filter our perceptions, attract us to specific events, people, and experiences, interpret the meaning of things, and guide our actions, thus constructing our overall experience.

They are like our Operating System, obvious but their code is invisible.

Here is how it works.

It starts with our hidden assumptions and what we unquestionably believe we know.

How Beliefs Shape Your WorldView

Have you ever wondered, "What do I know with 100% certainty?"

Most of everything we know to be true is simply a belief that we have learned from our society and environment.

We have very little direct experience or personal knowledge, and about 99% of what we 'know' is taken on authority or a byproduct of our assumptions.

This includes almost all of the facts, science, religion, philosophy, and history that we have made a part of our belief systems.

We have learned it all from our environment and have taken it to be true.

At the core of this are many hidden assumptions. We believe these are self-evident, unquestionably true, and not worth inquiring about. They are the unexplored parts of our beliefs we automatically assume to be true.

Ultimately, our beliefs tell us a story and explain the nature of reality and our relationship with it.

They provide a structure and a set of values.

These values can be organized in value systems, philosophical frameworks and be seen in our culture, arts and movies.

Let's go to the Movies!

We will look at the Three most prominent Philosophical Movements of the day, their beliefs and values, and how to resolve their contradictions.

See if you can spot some of their beliefs and how they contribute to each character’s life.

Traditionalism: Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird

Here Atticus Finch delivers a powerful closing argument in defense of Tom Robinson, a black man unjustly accused of raping a white woman in the segregated South.

His speech appeals to the jury's sense of justice, morality, and the principles upon which the law is supposed to stand, all very traditional values.

The irony is that the reason that Tom Robinson is on trial and was falsely accused of raping Mayella, a white woman who was in reality pursuing him.

Mayella's actions were taboo; they threatened the very fabric of their social and racial hierarchies, which could have led to social ostracism.

This accusation was a defense mechanism against the shame and potential backlash she faced within her community for her actions.

This is a great example of how a set of beliefs and values have both Positive and Negative consequences.

They have healthy and unhealthy variations.

Modernism: Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby embodies the American Dream, reflecting Modernism's emphasis on progress, success, and the self-made man.

His belief that he was destined to be a great man led to his success and in him becoming and achieving everything a man could want: status, fame, fortune, power, beauty, and all at a very young age.

Yet there is something missing.

All of the objects, people, and experiences aren’t enough to fulfill him.

There is a hollowness to all of the materialism, so he looks back on his life and sees where it all changed.

For the rest of the film, Gatsby tries to get back the love that got away, believing that this is what is missing.

Even in his attempt to solve his emptiness, he assumes that the answer is in yet another relationship. He is trying to solve the problem of emptiness with more materialism.

The overall message of the Great Gatsby is that the American Dream is just that, a dream.

Post-Modernism: Tyler Durden in Fight Club

In Fight Club, the disillusionment of Modern values is complete. The idea that consumerism, and materialism are the solutions to emptiness or that there is some grand purpose or meaning have come crumbling down.

At its heart, there is a search for authentic meaning beyond what has been constructed or any grand narrative.

Here, Tyler Durden delivers his critique of consumer culture, traditional values, and the search for identity in a postmodern world.

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“We are the middle children of history, with no purpose or place.” Tyler Durden

One of the main challenges with postmodernism is that there are no objective truths and no meaning beyond the self.

To find that meaning, one has to create their own meaning. However, this new meaning won’t be shared. It won’t mean much to others, to we are left with no where to go and nothing to do beyond ourselves.

In the end, what we have is just more emptiness, a loss of meaning, and Nihilism, and as we swim through these waters, we are essentially just fighting ourselves.

Perhaps, one of the main messages of Fight Club is that which is within us, eventually comes out it its pure form. Inner chaos leads to outer chaos.

Ideology & 3 Archetypal Philosophical Movements

Our characters and their stories above characterize the three main stories that humanity is telling today.

These three stories exist on a meta-archetypal level, meaning that even though the names, events, and characters can change from culture to culture, their stories have a similar foundation and structure.

So, let’s unpack these Philosophical Movement and the Archetypal Story they tell.

Traditionalism

Traditionalism emphasizes the importance of preserving the ideas, values, and social structures that have proven helpful over the centuries.

The core feature of traditionalism is that it focuses on what has been proven to work. It favors the known over the unknown, which means that it prefers to focus its efforts on known domains of life and create value there instead of exploring new domains.

As the world changes, what is new becomes old. And in this way, we will always have some form of traditionalism.

Today, traditionalism is associated with religious, cultural, and ethical norms as a stable foundation for human life and society.

Now, let’s jump into the deep end:

1. Characteristics: absolutistic, obedient, purposeful, authoritarian

2. Core Belief: There is a higher order and meaning to the Universe and Life itself, and that highest order is God/Gods.

3. Chief Problem: Achieving everlasting peace of mind (heaven, paradise, etc) in a chaotic world.

4. Nature of Existence: Dualistic and Saintly

5. Meaning: Life has meaning, direction, and purpose with predetermined outcomes

6. Purpose: There is a transcendent Purpose, a recognition of the importance of order and meaning, a universe controlled by a single higher power.

7. Means: Sacrificing Self for a transcendent Cause, (secular or religious) Truth, Mission, future reward

8. Truth: Traditionalists see "Truth" as fundamental, all-encompassing, and worthy of any sacrifice or personal surrender, even of one's life.

9. Motives: Security- Order, Right & Wrong

10. Values: Traditional values, duty, morality, discipline, character, duty, honor, justice, and moral fiber; righteous living; controlling impulsivity through guilt;

11. Examples: Puritan America, Confucian China, Dickensian England, Religious fundamentalism, etc…

As people moved from rural life on a farm to life in the city, our beliefs and values about the world began to change.

Instead of life being about sacrificing for a transcendent cause, it became about progress, creating one’s vision, and living the good life right now.

Howard Roark, from The Fountainhead, showcases the shift from Traditionalism to Modernism in his courtroom speech.

Modernism

Modernism is characterized by a belief in progress and the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment. It’s about the individual creating value, sharing it with society, and reaping the benefits of his labor.

Modernists struggle for autonomy, independence, material abundance, and progress by finding the best solutions.

1. Characteristics: materialistic, strategic, ambitions, individualistic

2. Core Belief: Progress will save us

3. Chief Problem: Conquering the physical world

4. Nature of Existence: Materialistic

5. Meaning: loss of meaning; quest for personal meaning

6. Purpose: personal purpose focuses on winning and materialism

7. Means: Scientism

8. Truth: Can be discovered via the scientific methods now or later

9. Motives: Independence- Autonomy & Achievement

10. Values: Progress, prosperity, optimism, and self-reliance; strategy, risk-taking, and competitiveness; goals, leverage, professional development, and mastery; rationality, objectivism, demonstrated results, technology, and the power of science

11. Examples:  The Enlightenment, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Wall Street, American Dream

And now the fun really begins.

In the Tears in the Rain scene from Blade Runner, we see Roy Batty, a replicant, who embodies the zenith of Modernist technology reveals a deeply human, empathetic qualities as he saves the life of Rick Deckard, the man who has been hunting him.

It serves as a poignant reflection on what it means to be truly alive and the value of individual experiences in the face of the inescapable passage of time and death.

Here, life is not about conquering, winning, or accumulating material wealth.

Post-Modernism

Here, we begin to fully question the foundational assumptions of modernism. The beliefs in objective truth, universal narratives, and the idea that progress and reason alone could lead to a better world are investigated.

The relative, subjective, and human aspects are now taken into account and included, which gives rise to relativism, and everything being seen as the byproduct of different perspectives.

The multiplicity of perspectives is respected and taken into account with the aim of finding peace within this multiplicity and polarity.

1. Characteristics: relativistic, sensitive, pluralistic, personalistic

2. Core Belief: Everything is relative

3. Chief Problem: Living with the human element (materialism, dogma, divisiveness). Accepting the unacceptable.

4. Nature of Existence: Personalistic

5. Meaning: believe in a multiplicity of meanings,

6. Purpose: the creation of a personal purpose,

7. Means: Sociocentricity, progress via collective group

8. Truth: No fundamental truth; everything is relative

9. Motives: Affiliation- Approval, Equality, Community, Love

10. Values: Sensitivity to others, harmony, equality, reconciliation, consensus, dialogue, participation, relationships, and networking; human development, bonding, diversity, and multiculturalism

11. Examples: John Lennon’s Imagine, Netherlands’ idealism, sensitivity training, human rights and diversity issues, etc.

Now, you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Beliefs have Consequences

Now, each of our Beliefs and Philosophical Systems have consequences. They all have all provided value to our world, but there is also a hidden cost.

The cost is that they can lead us into limiting beliefs and feelings of Guilt, Existential Angst, and Nihilism.

Here below is an example, of the hidden assumptions with Modernism and Postmodernism and how they can lead to depression.

In the clip below, Alvi is depressed because the Universe is expanding. Ultimately, this means everything will be pulled apart, and 'that will be the end of everything.'

Here, Alvi points to the crux of the matter.

If you are a Physicalist or Materialist and believe that fundamentally, the nature of reality is made up of matter, then one way or another, eventually entropy will win out, and it will all go back to its fundamental reality.

All that will exist will be cold, dead matter; in light of this, no progress will ever be enough to conquer the physical world and your perspective on this won’t matter.

This can easily lead to existential angst and a loss of meaning and purpose.

After all, why bother working so hard if it's all for nothing?

Dr. Flicker provides an answer, "It won't be expanding for a billion years, and we gotta try and enjoy ourselves while we are here."

In other words, what Modernists are left with is meaningless hedonism.

Post modernist, on the other hand, object that hedonism as being enough because there are no grand narratives and meaningless hedonism does not work for many.

In the end, believing in Physicalism or Materialism, means that you only have this one experience of life, which can be gone at any moment and must be protected at costs. No wonder why so many of us are anxious, lonely, depressed, nihilistic, and no where near our potential.

Comparatively, Traditionalists don’t have these problems, and I am saying this to illustrate the Power of your Beliefs.

So what’s the way forward?

Here, there are no easy answers.

Ideology: When Your Beliefs Own Your

Our beliefs have a philosophical grounding.

Out of all of the beliefs available in our environment, the ones that most appeal to our identity begin to work on us from the inside.

Before you know it, we consider them ‘our’ ideas.

The beliefs act as our foundational structure and as such construct, interpret and give meaning to our lived experiences.

We don’t just hold the beliefs anymore; they hold us now.

Now, we become defenders of our beliefs and our ideologies and defend them at all costs.

Seeing the truth becomes a great threat; it’s painful, and it can shatter many of your illusions.

The truth can destroy your very foundation and leave you empty, alone, and utterly lost in a world you don’t understand.

In the clip above, Slavoj Zizek shares his insights into Ideology.

Ultimately, the only way to Freedom is to be forced.

And how can you be forced into wanting Freedom at the expense of everything you know?

Suffering!

When the pain and suffering become so undeniable, and when all of our defense mechanisms and rationalizations fail, then we can become open.

And this is the grace of suffering.

It’s your first teacher and the way out of the Matrix.

The Way Out of the Matrix

Perhaps one of the best depictions of how to get out of a world of illusion is the Matrix.

Neo embodies a journey of transformation, ultimately reaching a state of self-realization and self-actualization beyond the skepticism of postmodernism.

A quest for truth that leads him down the path of The Hero’s Journey.

This journey is closely related to Carl Jung's Individuation and Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, two psychological theories that describe the process of personal development and self-actualization.

And it all starts with inner pain…

Mundane Existence

In the Matrix, we see Neo living a deeply dissatisfying double life, as a software engineer by day and a hacker by night.

This double life represents his search for truth and his struggle with identify, who he is and wants to become.

He’s experiencing existential dread and feels that something is fundamentally wrong but can’t fully articulate it.

The Call to Adventure

Neo is given the choice to go on a journey and discover the truth or to fall back into illusion.

Before deciding, he learns about the type of prison he is in, a ‘prison that he can not smell or taste or touch, a prison for your mind’.

The only way to know is through experience. 

Finally, he is given a choice of Truth vs Illusion.

What is the Matrix?

After taking the Red Pull, Neo learns what the Matrix is.

However, it’s unbelievable.

Here, seeing is not believing.

Seeing alone is not enough.

To dispel the power of the Matrix, Neo must go beyond his perceptions. 

He must focus on what he knows to be true, beyond appearances, and this takes practice.

Growth & Challenges

Neo learns by doing.

He becomes by being.

A key moment is when Morpheus fights Neo in a simulation, challenging him to free his mind and understand that the limitations of the Matrix are bendable.

What is most interesting here is the nature of the Matrix.

The Matrix is a computer program.

Like all computer programs, the Matrix is ultimately made up of language.

Language creates, forms, and gives the Matrix structure.

As a hacker, Neo can bend and change the rules of his perceived reality through language.

But knowing this is not enough, what is needed is practice and confidence.

Self-Realization and Actualization

Finally, Neo has mastered the Matrix.

He has fully realized the difference between himself and the Matrix.

The Matrix is a shared computer simulation run by code.

Neo realizes that he is beyond the Matrix and has the ability to make it conform to his will as he can rewrite it via language.

He begins Self-Actualizing.

Integration of Belief and Action: The Rescue of Morpheus

Neo chooses to rescue Morpheus from Agent Smith, demonstrating his integration of belief into action.

By deciding to return to the Matrix for Morpheus, he confirms his unwavering commitment to his purpose and total belief in his abilities.

Embracing a Higher Purpose

The return of Agent Smith goes very deep. For one, it symbolizes the fact that we can NOT eliminate Evil by trying to eradicate it.

When we suppress our demons, they will just go to the pit of our soul, lift weights, and multiply.

And like Agent Smith, they will strike when you are at your weakest.

Agent Smith multiplies until there is a world consumed by Smith's copies, and he becomes the primary threat to the very system he was designed to protect.

We can see this through the Hegelian Dialectic.

Neo and Agent Smith showcase how opposites are inherently connected and define each other.

They are a part of the same process. They both learn from each other and evolve through each other's actions in a continuous cycle of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis.

The transformation of Agent Smith from a system protector to its adversary and Neo's transition from a rebel to a savior embody the Hegelian idea of growth through conflict and resolution.

Their journeys highlight the potential for change and the evolution of consciousness through the dialectic process.

Personal Empowerment: Neo's Sacrifice

Ultimately, you can not destroy the Devil by becoming Evil. Becoming Evil will turn you into a Devil yourself.

So, how do you resolve evil?

Here, Neo shows us the way forward is via assimilation. You resolve the conflict through synthesis.

On the surface, Neo's sacrifice, allowing himself to be assimilated by Smith, is the hight of paradox as it looks like he lets Agent Smith win.

But we quickly find out that in allowing himself to be assimilated, Neo effectively becomes a conduit for the destruction of Smith by the machines.

Neo ultimately wins by transcending and including, not irradiating.

And here we have the final lesson on what it means to be: THE ONE.

Neo has fully realized his identity beyond his individuality.

Neo's journey throughout the trilogy is marked by this gradual shedding of his finite self—his identity as Thomas Anderson, his doubts, and his limitations.

His final act of sacrifice can be seen as the culmination of this process, where he fully relinquishes his individual ego and merges with the ultimate reality.

This act transforms him from a singular entity into a key part of the universal fabric of his reality.

A new world that is born through him.

A world where Machines and Humans live as One.

And perhaps this is the ultimate Grace of Evil.

Evil tests us, shows us our weaknesses, and pushes us out of our own illusions. It forces us to grow up and integrate.

How to Set Yourself Free

In Neo's narrative arc, we see the way out of ideology into an authentic life through growth, which transforms both Neo and his world.

Neo goes through all of the stages of the Hero’s Journey, ultimately taking on the ultimate responsibility of personal transformation in service to all beings.

His story parallels Carl Jung’s Individuation, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and Easter's Philosophy.

The Call to Adventure

• Confrontation with the Unconscious: His sense that something is fundamentally wrong mirrors the initial stages of individuation, where a sense of unease or dissatisfaction prompts a confrontation with the unconscious.

The Journey of Transformation

• Encounter with the Shadow: Choosing the red pill and awakening to the reality of the Matrix symbolizes Neo's encounter with his shadow.

• Maya: The Matrix, with its illusions and control, represents the aspects of the self that are denied or repressed, including power, fear, and the capacity for change.

• Integration of the Anima/Animus: Everyone in his life, in his world, represents different parts of himself that he has to come to terms with and integrate.

This During his Journey, NEO does not get stuck on any one ideology or set of beliefs or values. He does’t become a Traditionalist or a Modernist or a PostModernist.

Instead, he utilizes all of these values when the situation demands it.

1. Traditional Values: Neo fits the role of a traditional Hero with a higher purpose who believes in his destined prophecy. He has high ethical and moral convictions, a sense of duty and responsibility, and sacrifices himself for the greater good.

2. Modern Values: He regularly uses logical reasoning to manipulate the Matrix. He is rational, uses scientific inquiry, and believes in making progress through personal development. He is also individualistic and pursues Self-actualization.

3. Post-Modern Values: His Identity and reality are seen as fluid constructs. He gains the ability to construct himself to his will not for some selfish means but instead for his own selfish Actualization.

How to Apply this to your Life

Beliefs, Ideology, & Maya: Consider your beliefs and assumptions about what the world is and should be. How do your beliefs impact your life and death?

Inner & Outer Conflict: Consider what is it that bothers you most? Who is your Mr. Smith? Who are the Machines in your life?

Self-Exploration & Learning: How are your beliefs and assumptions related to your conflicts? What do you need to synthesize?

Integration of Values: Consider ways to integrate all of the values available to you. The values are there for you as tools to help you become the best version of yourself. 

Next Steps: Self-Discovery

If you want to go through the process, I created a Self Discover Journey that deeply explores each part of your Identity.

The Self Discovery Journal will guide you through a deep exploration of your via a set of Self Inquiry questions that are aimed at helping you uncover your core.

You can see a free Preview here.

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