Shauk

Ok I found a bit of the script online... after I saw it already.

because I wanted to quote smith on something


Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson ? Why do you do it ? Why get up ? Why keep fighting ? Do you believe you're fighting for something ? For more than your survival ? Can you tell me what it is ? Do you even know ? Is it freedom ? Or truth ? Perhaps peace ? Yes ? No ? Could it be for love ? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constrects of a feeble human intellect trying to deperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson ? Why ? Why do you persist ?!

Neo: Because I choose to."


Does Smith's rant even make you think about our logic?

why DO we do the things that we do?

I know we choose to but when smith was standing there screaming this at neo, Its like the words were coming from me.

its the same questions that I've asked myself all the time.

what is your take on this outlook? negative? or real?

I mean im in love right now. but are not our emotions simply something we put labels on?

anti fishstick

yes it's a little negative. but i wouldn't say downright pessimistic. just a bit realist. i always like to think, i'm not pessimistic, i'm just a realist :-D

but anyway, i found an error w/ smith's rant.
"you can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting"

isn't he fighting with neo as well? they're trying to defeat eachother.

"why do you persist!?"
the fact that neo has so much faith in this free will, this choice, this belief that love exists and is worth fighting for, angers mr. smith SO much that he lets himself get defeated by it.

i think this is a perfect metaphor for life and how people really do need to feel like they have the power to change things and be in control. a person that knows this is going to be happier than the person who thinks change comes from external sources (religion, family, close friends, whatever)

don't get me wrong, i see a lot of truth in smith's speech. but it's all about what you make out of it. life is pointless and futile, i agree. but the least i can do is make the best out of it. and if i want to do that, i have to find happiness. and the way to happiness is in personal growth. relationships with other people. making goals for myself and accomplishing them, etc. i have to MAKE something of my life in order to feel like i've lived the best i could. and to dwell on smith's perception is not the way to happiness, IMO.

as for love, [as in earlier in the movie] love IS just a word. only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love? i don't agree with that either. love is a word, first and foremost, meant to describe a feeling. yes, it may exist only in our minds (or as some might say, hearts) but that's where a lot of things come from. feelings are a result of thoughts. to form thoughts to form feelings such as 'love' is a wonderful thing.

to form thoughts to form feelings such as rage is not.

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And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
~Anais Nin

MuadDib

When this Smith was going off on this tangent during the movie all I could think was him yelling, "You gonna cry? You gonna run home to mommy?" Then sit in my seat giggling for the rest of the scene.

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"The courts that first rode the warhorse of virtual representation into battle on the res judicata front invested their steed with near-magical properties." ~27 F.3d 751

ObieX

I think that the rigidness of a/any society is a bad thing. There are infinite ways to look at everything in existance. All society does is squash a massive percentage of our potential outlook.

The matrix movies ask "why?" a lot. My answers to that would flow along the lines of "why not?" or "What else do i have to do?" If life has no meaning, then there is no reason to do anything. So why not do what you want to do?

Letting your choices be influenced by others is a different topic/answer. There is really little that can be done to avoid it. Language itself is an outside influence. If you know a language then you are already thinking inside a box. Everything else; like clothing.. music.. the way you walk.. the fact that you *do* walk (on two legs)... etc are just more boxes wrapped around your consciousness preventing it's expansion and exploration. On the other hand these can also contribute to it's expansion, all-be-it in a much more limited way.

There is no spoon.

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We Must Dissent.

John Henry

*Outtake follows*

Smith: Let me tell you why, Mr. Anderson. It's because you're just a stupid monkey. Hominid or no, you're no more special or important than any of the other slimy, biochemical automata that slither the surface of this pathetic little rock. That's why, Anderson. That's why.

Anderson: So what's your excuse, Smith?

*Outtake ends*

That's what I think, anyway.

Kudos to Shauk for posting a non-theological philosophy thread

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"No one was behaving from very Buddhist motives. Then, thought Pigsy, he was hardly a Buddha, nor was he a monkey. Presently, he was a pig spirit changed into a little girl pretending to be a little boy to be offered to a water monster. It was all very simple to a pig spirit."

rogue49

In the end...you will do what you will do.
No reason nor rhyme.
But you also need to deal with the consequences.

The only meaning is what you give yourself.

CSflim

spot on!

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