Philosophers Draw on the Film 'Matrix' (NY Times)

哲学

哲学者の注目を集める映画『マトリックス』。いささかミーハーっぽいのだけど、なかなか面白かった。マトリックスの世界観をフランスの思想家でニヒリストのジャン・ボードリヤールになぞらえていて、偽造世界としてのマトリックスはアメリカの現代文化の象徴でであり、その世界を解放しようとするネオたちはテロリストであるらしい。

There is a distaste for contemporary American culture in many of Mr. Baudrillard's analyses, and a distaste too for American power and its images. This is also shared by the rebels of "The Matrix," who reflect a kind of hacker ideology, seeking to "free" information from its "system" of control, to overturn the Matrix and its tyranny of images.

But this has a disturbing side. In the essay "On Nihilism" Mr. Baudrillard announces that in the face of "hegemonic" power, there is but one response: terrorism. He writes, "I am a terrorist and nihilist in theory as others are with their weapons." Similarly, in "The Matrix," Morpheus tells Neo he must regard all inhabitants of that virtual world as enemies that may be killed; anyway, most people are "not ready" for the truth. Morpheus is even wanted by the Matrix's ruthless agents for "acts of terrorism." While we are meant to cheer him on, neither Mr. Baudrillard nor the Wachowskis nor the philosophical essayists explore the ethical limits of these all-too-familiar convictions.