The Meatrix (Oct. 7th)

    Last weekend, I watched the movie, The Matrix, and that is what we handled in class today. When watching the film on the weekend, I was unable to comprehend why Mr.Paterson had us watch it. However, as the story went on, the importance of differentiating the real world and an artificial world became apparent. Aside from the representation of parallel worlds, there were copious other messages in the film. The more I thought about it, the deepeness of this movie gave me goosebumps. What intrigued me most was the symbolism that each character, prop, quote, setting held. Aside from the meticulously designed features of the movie, it turned out to be closely related to our class. I was very convinced when Mr.Paterson says this class serves as a 'red pill'. In that sense, Morpheous would be Mr.Paterson! There are not many opportunities where reality is exposed before our eyes, since the media portrays it in a very special and manipulative way. Regardless, now that we have taken the 'red pill', just like Neo in the movie, there is no going back. Within just the past few months, we have been educated on significant issues such as the Coca Cola campaign, Palestine, Chevron, Venezuela, and countless more. So, there ought to be various other issues permeating the world, just that we are oblivious about it. 

    Regarding the news on Venezuela, I was astonished that with a dedicated and remarkable leader, minorities' voices can be heard, and even the literacy rate shooted up to an astounding 98%, which is basically the entire population. Nonetheless, such influential people being openly attacked and criticized by the media is atrocious. Listening to Mr.Paterson speak, I could imagine how the media would manipulate reality and take the slightest fraction out of the real story and depict Venezuela in a certain way. Notwithstanding the frauds of the mainstream (and other media sources), it is absolutely unacceptable that the society we live in has become so homogenous that media can unhesitantly make such nasty changes without having to worry about the truth being exposed. On the contrary to such dark news, the people in Venezuela that rose their voices demanded change and actually contributed to freeing many from the poverty cycle is outstanding. Simultaneously, this issue reminded me of the power of education, and during class, I almost felt a little guilty for being so privileged, yet not acquiring the information I need nor taking action. Today's class was very informative but also contained moments for me to self-reflect. 

    Moving on, the most intriguing part of today's class was The Meatrix. I was pretty entertained by the original movie, so watching the parody was hilarious. Hence, what enthralled me most was the topic they handled. Being vegan, campaigns promoting veganism being caught by the public eye is always exciting news. The way they promoted the campaign, worded the title, and controlled viewers' dopamine levels, then bringing in important statistics right after, are all very manipulative and smart moves. The story of The Meatrix mailing an excessive amount of PR to Mr.Paterson was also very clever, in order to be "gorilla marketing the red pill". All of this being produced with not much money was impressive. However, the Japanese not being a part of this campaign is so devastating. There are copious vegan activists advocating veganism, environmental issues, animal exploitation, and many other social issues that relate to veganism. However, in comparison to other countries where there are substantial numbers of young advocates having a clear stance in these issues, Japan falls far behind. Since this is something I am very interested and passionate about, I would like to take part in the campaign and spread it in Japan, but I do not know how, so I think there is plenty of researching to do for me. 

Notes: 
Venezuela's leader raised literate percentages from 70% -> 98% 
+medical and education became free (many poor people came out of poverty)
...but rich powerful people did not like this. the educated demanded change because they have information
took land away from the rich people
The US support rich people and controlled Venezuela 
a coup occurred, only one channel was telling the truth (official government channel)
produced by free range studio in 2003, raising peoples awareness against healthy food

https://www.themeatrix.com/