Snowden is Neo
It struck me that our world has become a tragic parodic mix of the Matrix and Minority Report. Our lead character is Edward Snowden and Snowden is Neo.
If we cast out minds back to the Matrix, we see a world where the machines take over and enslave the human race after a nuclear war failed against the machines, blackening the sky and turning us into biological batteries. In contrast in real life, we came to the point of nuclear war, stepped back from the abyss, but managed to enslave our world with money and debt. We encouraged the pursuit of happiness and subservience through a process of working, buying and consuming.
Remembering Minority Report, we see a world where the system has evolved to the detection of ‘pre-crime’, apprehending criminals based on ‘foreknowledge’ provided by three psychics called “precogs”. The system is twisted by the man in charge to cover his own crimes. The system watches you, it knows you, your habits, your beliefs and what what you want.
Rather than the robotic masters we see in the Matrix, we have the money masters. Powerful people hiding behind facades of democracy, ensuring that we see a system that works for them, because if we see the reality of those production fields as ‘people as batteries’, we would revolt and the system would collapse. Like the film our world is such that the veil of truth cannot be lifted, for fear of change.
The Agent Smiths of our world are the shadowy black funded government agencies like the NSA, working slowly and methodically towards a world that is perpetually under mass surveillance. A world where they know the inner feelings and beliefs of every man, woman and child on this planet. With that power, they will be able to make sure that every democracy is controlled, scripted and directed, following the master plan, and every dissenter to those aims is quickly subdued.
In our world we have no ‘precogs’ behind the system, protecting us from criminals. Instead we are well on our way to ‘pre-crime’ detection through big data, and the data mining of that data. The next logical next is that your search terms, conversation partner or actions online could trigger a ‘pre-crime’ warning. Before you know it, the FBI will be knocking on your door, wanting to take you downtown for a little chat.
Today it might just be a search for a pressure-cooker. Tomorrow it might be your interest in guns combined with a weekend booked online in a Washington D.C. hotel, combined with a conversation you had on Skype stating that the weekend was ‘going to be the bomb’.
Back to our Matrix story however, something went wrong and rather than a successful extraction of Neo by a wily band of dissenters living on the fringes of society, protecting themselves through technology, we had Julian Assange as Morpheous.
His arrogance and desire to enlarge his own ego, meant that rather than quietly extracting Neo from behind enemy lines, he continued to announce his intentions to extract Neo to the entire system. Before Neo could be extracted the system locked down, and Neo now finds himself stuck in the bowels of humanity, unable to move forward and help to free humanity from its bondage of consumption and surveillance. He does what he can from his precarious situation, like a single ant biting at a human who trod on its nest, slowly and methodically releasing information that breaks down the rose tinted glasses that we are all forced to wear. If we are all ants, then it is his job to free us all.
He can only hope that once we have all seen the truth, and realize just how bad it is, we will rise up and all simultaneously bite that human that stood on our nest, poisoning him and ripping down this system of consumptive oppression. Only then can the human race be free again to continue on its path to the next level of understanding.
Our world is no longer one where we cure disease and are passionate about going forward and seeing the stars. Instead we mass produce iPod’s and stage X Factor music competitions to mas produce the music to play on them. We create drugs to hold diseases at bay, rather than try to cure disease completely, because financially it is worth much more money. We discovered that we can make more and more money, through printing more, trillions more, and then enslaving entire nations with debt.
It is time to fight back. It is time to realize that we can all fight for Neo’s cause.
I believe that the solution is relatively simple. We have been conditioned into a belief that we need to consume, constantly consume material goods. Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that we don’t need to consume these kind of goods in the way that we do today.
We alter the way we consume. We need to share. We start with our children. “You have to share your toys with your brother”, we say to our 3 year old. “Share with your friends. They share with you when you got to their house”, we preach to our toddlers.
However, we pay little attention to our own preaching. Some of us lend books and DVDs to our friends, although technically it is illegal on many countries, and any higher level organised lending would be quickly shut down. However, on the whole, we have been conditioned to live in a world where ownership of ‘stuff’ is so very important. I am reminded of a very famous poster created by the Designer’s Republic called “Work, Buy, Consume, Die”.
Everybody has the feeling they need to own stuff. When it comes to the consumption of media, this is a fallacy. We don’t. The proof is there.
Look over at those books, CD’s and DVD’s gathering dust there in your Ikea Billy bookcase. When did you last read that book, or watch than movie? I bet that the vast majority of you haven’t ever read or watched it again.
Let’s consider the environmental impact here. Production and transportation of books, DVDs and CDs have a vast environmental cost. If we all used the library and stopped buying books then that environmental cost would be vastly reduced. However, libraries are always stocked with everything you want, and often newer stuff takes some time to arrive.
So, due to the political clout of organisations like the MPAA and RIAA, we can’t lend our media legally. Books are ok, but let’s not get me started on e-books (you never really own it). So what is the solution? We need one that is both legal, fair and easy to do.
My proposition is to build an application that allows people to give away their things to their friends. The system tracks what you have and others can ask you for it. Your Ikea Billy bookcase becomes shared with all of your friends, and theirs with you. Beforehand you didn't really know what they had on offer, now you do.
Before long we could have a system where we condition people to stop thinking that they need to own a copy of the Matrix on DVD. You friend Pete has it, just ask him for it. You meet up and he gives it to you. Now you are the custodian of that DVD. You watch it, and the next time someone asks you for it you pass it on, and so on.
Not only do we start to reduce our environmental impact, but we also start to affect the economy. The companies bolstering organisations such as the MPAA and RIAA get squeezed so tight, they are forced to change back to a business model that works for us all.
It seems ironic to me that I must turn to the man who many thought would bring ‘change’ to a system that needed change so badly. A man who in many people’s opinion, has left an ocean of empty promises. He sums up my belief that through a change in our consumption we can affect the pillars of greed, through money, debt and their pursuit of power.
“One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. Your voice can change the world.”
— Barack Obama
It is Snowden, as our protagonist, that has started the tiniest kindling of a fire. It is up to us to fan the flames. It is up to us to make a stand. I do not believe that the political system as it stands allows us to truly make change. All the options we are given are the blue pill. The red pill simply isn't on offer.
The power to hurt the system lies with our money. That money comes from our consumption, and the problems caused by money are exacerbated through greed. As ants, our only defense is through working together en-mass. Through are reduced consumption, we can affect the economy and those corporate interests that have set themselves against us, their own consumers.
You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I’m offering is the truth – nothing more.
— Morpheus
