"Waiting on the World to Change"

Ever since I saw The Matrix, I’ve had a small place in my heart for Cypher. That name probably won’t mean much to most of you, but he is the guy who betrays Morphious in the first Matrix film. In the movie, his betrayal is rooted in a desire to return to the Matrix rather than live in the real world that he hates. The reason Cypher receives my empathy is not only that I have a God-complex (too many of my friends have God-complexes and still think Cypher was an ass). This is the case, because when I look at this character I see someone who is similarly wrestling with the complex issue of what it means to live in a community.

In The Matrix, what could be called the real world sucks. Everyday Cypher wakes up, eats a bowl of nasty gruel, and thinks to himself - Who would want to live like this? Not only that, but everyone around him appears to be better able to deal with the crappy-ness of the world. So he comes to the point where a normal person would commit suicide; But instead, he realizes he has another option – returning to the Matrix. However, returning to the Matrix comes at a high price. He must betray his community, a community that he has already established a clear hatred towards. Cypher finds himself in a moral dilemma. He must determine if he is obligated to obey a moral standard that says not to betray his community though he is also aware that if he does betray this community he will never have to face any ramifications for that action. It is a tough decision. It gets worse. There is another option he must face that is not dealt with in the movie – staying in the “real world.”The question is even harder than it may first appear. Can an average man forsake a more enjoyable life so that everyone else may be happy?

On a daily basis my friends, family, fellow divinity students and I participate in a world where we know that more could be done to help people less fortunate than us; and still, we do nothing. I’m not attacking the fact that we don’t work at homeless shelters; I mean that we don’t even try to think of living in ways that would eliminate the need for homeless shelters. We don’t live as a part of a global community, or even as a larger Durham, North Carolina community. We live for ourselves as if we were the most important people on earth. We are not just, as the John Mayer song goes, “waiting for the world to change.” But instead, we are living like the rest of the world and hoping someone else will change it while we wait. I wonder if living this way, as if we were not a part of a community that affects other people, if that is not just creating our own fake world. If so, then the difference between our own denials of the people around us who are affected by our decisions and Cypher’s climbing back into the Matrix is smaller than most would think. Every time I pretend that that homeless guy isn’t on the street, I create a fake world in which to live. Every time I pretend that my clothes weren’t made in a sweatshop by 10 year olds, I create my own Matrix to live in. Every time I pretend my nieces don’t need or want me to hang out and be a positive male figure, I betray the people who need me the most.

Looks like I’m hanging out with my nieces next weekend.