Is ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ a reflection of Orwell’s Dystopian novel ‘1984’? thumbnail

Is ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ a reflection of Orwell’s Dystopian novel ‘1984’?

By Dr. Rich Swier

“At a time when political dishonesty is rampant, we should remember 1984s most important lesson: The state can occupy your mind.”Matthew Feeney, June 5, 2019 commentary titled Seventy Years Later, It’s Still ‘1984’


I watched the latest Matrix film titled “Resurrections” and saw on the silver screen the true meaning of Eric Blair’s dystopian novel “1984.”

According to Warner Brothers The Matrix Resurrections is a struggle:

To find out if his reality is a physical or mental construct, Mr. Anderson, aka Neo, will have to choose to follow the white rabbit once more. If he’s learned anything, it’s that choice, while an illusion, is still the only way out of — or into — the Matrix. Neo already knows what he has to do, but what he doesn’t yet know is that the Matrix is stronger, more secure and far more dangerous than ever before.

QUESTION: But is this true? Is Resurrections about “constructs” and “choices” or something else?

The Matrix Resurrections is about Language

After watching and reflecting overnight about this latest in the Matrix series of dystopian films, I came to the realization that Mr. Anderson, a.k.a. Neo, learned that the real danger of the Matrix is language.

Eric Blair, pen name George Orwell, published his novel “1984” in 1949 yet the lessons in his seminal work are still applicable today. Many who have read “1984“, including myself, had a false notion of the true meaning of Orwell’s work.

In a June 5th, 2019 op-ed published in the Fredericksburg Free Lance‐​Star titled “Seventy Years Later, It’s Still ‘1984’Matthew Feeney wrote:

The main lesson of “1984” is not “persistent surveillance is bad,” or “authoritarian governments are dangerous.” These are true statements, but not the most important message.

“1984” is at its core a novel about language; how it can be used by governments to subjugate and obfuscate, and by citizens to resist oppression. [Emphasis added]

It seems that The Matrix in its latest evolution “Resurrections” has addressed this core dystopian notion of how the state can occupy your mind.

Resurrections’ main character is The Analyst played by Neil Patrick Harris. The Analyst is the consummate wordsmith. He uses language to subjugate Neo and Trinity. As George Orwell wrote,

“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.”

The Analyst is a master at tearing apart human minds and putting the pieces back together again to maintain the myth of the Matrix. You see the Matrix is the ultimate myth!

Resurrections it is not a love conquers all story between Neo and Trinity. It is neither about persistent surveillance nor about authoritarian rule by machines. It’s not even about choice.

It is all about how language is used to create an alternate reality that even the citizens of IO cannot resist.

IO is a human city led by Niobe. Niobe believes that IO is the second chance for machines and humans to coexist together peacefully. This is a false flag used to suppress resistance. IO is a sub-state created by Niobe to keep its people from dissenting.

In Resurrections we see Bugs, played by Jessica Henwick, who is the blue-haired gunslinger with a White Rabbit tattoo and captain of the hovercraft Mnemosyne, as the true leader of the dissidents and the resistance against the Matrix.

Bugs understands that Niobe has been subjugated using the language of coexistence, the language that has kept Niobe from resisting the Matrix.

In order to be set free the people of IO must resist the oppression of the Matrix’s (government’s) ability to subjugate and obfuscate using words like coexist. Coexist is a word seen on car bumpers. Coexist is a myth.

The Real Lesson of The Matrix Resurrections 

We are now in an era where political dishonesty is rampant. It’s name is not The Matrix but rather the Cancel Culture.

QUESTION: Who are the Cancel Culture’s enemies?

ANSWER: Those who dissent and speak truth to power.

As The Analyst uses language to subjugate and obfuscate, so do todays politicians and world leaders. Political dishonesty is the new normal.

The media, social media and even Amazon’s Alexa use language to lull you into not thinking but rather obeying. Because if you think then you will resist their efforts to subjugate you via their language. Like Bugs, Neo and Trinity you must first dissent and then revolt in order to change the world.

George Orwell in 1984 wrote,

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”

Neo and Trinity were not mad when they suddenly realized the truth. The truth that they were being told untruths by The Analyst using obfuscated language. So to must we all be alert to being subjugated by the state that uses obfuscate language. For you see in Orwell’s dystopian world, and in The Matrix Resurrections,

Orthodoxy means not thinking–not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

Today we have the new language of the Cancel Culture, its the language of “the woke.” The Cancel culture or “call-out culture” is a nuevo form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those subject to this nuevo ostracism has then, by definition, been “cancelled.”

Woke is a mythical language created by people so that other people are first ostracized and then cancelled. It is the nuevo Matrix.

The authoritarian government of Orwell’s Oceania doesn’t merely punish dissent severely—it seeks to make even thinking about dissent impossible. So too does the dystopian Cancel Culture.

Don’t be cancelled like Neo and Trinity were. Stand up, like Bugs, and understand the language of the cancel culture’s myths. The Matrix is a myth. The Cancel Culture is a myth. So don’t submit to a world driven by the language of myths.

As Plato wrote, “No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.”

Howard Rotberg wrote, Any strong ideological belief carries with it a risk of denying those facts that do not support the ideology.”

QUESTION: What do we do to cancel the cancel culture?

ANSWER: Tell the truth using indisputable facts.

Seek the truth at all cost. The truth will set us all free.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.