Institutionalized control

Morpheus: "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around. What do you see. Business men, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it. ..."

In the movie Matrix, machines turned humans into the energy source through the matrix, an interactive neurosystem that is assimulated to control human minds. Recently, I watched a documentary that explains the philosophy behind the movie. It said that the interactive neurosystem can be seen as a symbol that resemble a society that runs a institutionalized control over its people, and people in such a society sumbit their life forces to run the society. If the society is a system of control, who is the one that controls? Government? Captialist? J.S. Mill digs much deeper and says that the people who are in the society can collectively control the individual in it.

A recent dissusion with three friends gives me some real-life samples of the control by society over individuals. Simon says 26, 27 and 29 are the ages at which most girls get married. Ben describes that, influenced by one of his classmates, he once dreamed in getting a high-paid job instead a meaningful one. Clara said about her anxieties when she was asked what kind of job she get when, in fact, she still has another year to finish. Clearly, my friends are all fighting against such a control. Some, luckily, succeed temporarily.

I think the strongest control by society seems to be the prearranged route of life: receive education, get a job, get married, and have a child. The constant nagging from parents, grandparents and other people around that warns us to follow that pattern only make such a pattern more boring than it actually is. After all, we cannot defy the rule of nature: we are getting older. Luckily, we have something else in control: how we get old. But how? How do I know I am not a monotonous mold shaped by the society? How do I know where I differ from anyone else? To how much extent I am actually myself, not a mold? To how much extent I know which part of me is the real me and which part is just a mirror of the society?