Xiggi as Neo

Parent Cafe
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<p>Intro: Here “Xiggi” is not meant to refer to the actual, living being known on CC by that name. Rather, this “Xiggi” is an archetype - the smart, opinionated, questioning college student. Neo, for the culturally illiterate, is the hero of the movie “The Matrix” in which he discovers that what he thought was his life was actually just a dream, pumped into his brain by a rather nasty looking machine. It turns out that all life on Earth is nothing more than an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, for the purpose of placating humans while their life essence is “farmed” to fuel the Matrix. Upon being rather rudely awakened Neo has to go out into the real (?) world and try to figure out what’s what. It’s all pretty confusing, as it turns out.</p>

<p>So how is Neo/Xiggi to know that what he “knows” is true, and not just an illusion that has been pumped into him by the Matrix? Our hero is in college, and has been applying his not-inconsiderable brainpower to studying the political/economic world for five or six years now. He’s been forming opinions for some time, but every once in a while, out of the corner of his eye, he sees something that’s… not quite there. He realizes that his opinions, while logical and rational in themselves, are built on a foundation of basic knowledge which is stuff that “everybody knows.” </p>

<p>But… why does “everybody” know this stuff? And why is it that there are some - people scorned by all the right-thinking types Neo/Xiggi spends most of his time with - who insist that what “everybody knows” isn’t actually “true”? Why don’t they “know” what “everybody knows.” Oh, yeah, they’re scorned by right thinking people - held in contempt and treated with condescension and ridicule, and everyone knows that’s the right way to view them. Neo/Xiggi has heard about those others, you know. “Everyone knows” how to describe them: sick… pathetic… liars…liberals… they… them… shallow…traitors… hypocrits… radical… corrupt… incompetent… permissive… destructive… self-serving… greedy…ideological… insecure… anti-flag, anti-family, anti-child, anti-jobs… pessimistic… corrupt… selfish… insensitive… bizarre… cynical… </p>

<p>Everyone knows. Everyone has heard, over and over, about those “others” who hold opinions contrary to what “everyone knows.” But how can Neo/Xiggi be sure that what he “knows” - what “everybody knows” isn’t a version of reality that has been pumped into him since he was a small child by… The Matrix?</p>

<p>—More to come—</p>

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<p>Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died </p>

<p>Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows </p>

<p>Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you’ve been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows </p>

<p>Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows </p>

<p>Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows </p>

<p>And everybody knows that it’s now or never
Everybody knows that it’s me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you’ve done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows </p>

<p>And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it’s moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows </p>

<p>And everybody knows that you’re in trouble
Everybody knows what you’ve been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it’s coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows </p>

<p>Everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows </p>

<p>Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows </p>

<p>Everybody knows</p>

<p>Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows</p>

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<p>Now, let’s complete the casting of the College Confidential Matrix. </p>

<p>This may be more interesting than the Oscars. Where is that CC poll feature?</p>

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<p>It’s the question that drives us…</p>

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<p>Well, if Xiggi is Neo, I think FountainSiren has to be Trinity. And TheDad is definitely Agent Smith. Would Kluge make a good Cypher? How about Mini as The Architect?</p>

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<p>Leonard Cohen ? You have GOT to be kidding!!! :)</p>

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<p>Um, Driver-- Neo discovers that everything he believes is an illusion, so his new gang wouldn’t be made up of people who believe the same stuff that he already does.</p>

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<p>um am I culturally illiterate because I have never watched the Matrix?
I don’t think I have see Keanu in anything since the Rivers edge</p>

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<p>Oh, double-um garland. Neo is self-disassociated from the dominant CNN/libertine/ MSM-supported big government culture about which he has already had serious doubts…remember? And who better to help him find his way out of this fix than the “new gang,” who bring him to meet Morpheus—played by FundingFather?</p>

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<p>Oh, please, Xiggi, FS, and FF are part of the dominant paradigm–CNN libertine culture? you’ ve got to be kidding. Remember, you are the ones running everything, as you all so frequently, and gleefully, point out.</p>

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<p>The Oracle/baker/insider: driver.</p>

<p>Warning to ccers:</p>

<p>If you are not one of us, you are one of them (agent Smith without the face time) because you are still connected to the system (scary thought)…I didn’t write the screen-play, remember…I’m only acting.</p>

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<p>Oh, pooh, garland. Xiggi, FS, and FF are the beleaguered warrior captains, fighting against those squiggly monster thingies–played by CGM and Lauras50. The dominant power brokers are played by those wishy-washy types (including, interestingly, Cornel West) on the great council, as those huge monster machines (played by the NYT, LAT, WaPo, CBS, NBC, ABC) drill holes through their refuge and try to corrupt the last bastion of liberty on earth.</p>

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<p>This is truly fascinating! I bet you all think you’re Winston from 1984, too!</p>

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<p>Ah, and now you approach the key: There’s no way for Neo/Xiggi to know if driver is telling him the truth, or garland. They both seem sincere. They both have plausible stories to support their version of reality. The “Matrix reality” was just as convincing as the “real reality” until he got spit out of the machine.</p>

<p>How does Neo/Xiggi know which reality is real?</p>

<p>– more to come —</p>

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<p>Ah, Kluge, the difference is I am not claiming to know it. I’m just calling out those that do.</p>

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<p>FundingFather: The Matrix is a system, Xiggi. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
[Xiggi’s eyes suddenly wander towards a woman in a red dress]
FundingFather: Were you listening to me, Xiggi? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?
Xiggi: I was…
FF: [gestures with one hand] Look again.
[the woman in the red dress is now TheDad, pointing a gun at Xiggi’s head; Xiggi ducks]
FundingFather: Freeze it.
[Everybody and everything besides Xiggi and FF freezes in time]
Xiggi: This… this isn’t the Matrix?
FF: No. It is another training program designed to teach you one thing: if you are not one of us, you are one of them.</p>

<p>TheDad: You’re empty.
Xiggi: So are you.</p>

<p>TheDad: I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you Republican/conservatives do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Republicans are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure.</p>

<p>Driver: You’re cuter than I thought. I can see why she likes you.
Xiggi: Who?
Driver: Not too bright, though.</p>

<p>TheDad: You hear that Mr. Anderson?.. That is the sound of inevitability… It is the sound of your death… Goodbye, Mr. Anderson…
Xiggi: My name… is Xiggi.</p>

<p>Kluge: I know what you’re thinking, 'cause right now I’m thinking the same thing. Actually, I’ve been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn’t I take the BLUE pill?
FundingFather: The pill you took is part of a trace program. It’s designed to disrupt your input/output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location.
Xiggi: What does that mean?
Kluge: It means buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye. </p>

<p>Thanks for the great idea, Kluge. NOW…back to the DailyKos :)</p>

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<p>L O L :)</p>

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<p>I… I thought… it was the OTHER blue pill. Oh #%@&*%$.</p>

<p>Coming Tomorrow: A suggestion on how to figure out who is real and who is the Matrix!</p>

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<p>Wow. Driver, reverse the red wire and the blue wire…you’re suffering from a polarity reversal in the casting. Among other things.</p>

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<p>Glad I wasn’t drinking anything when I read this------ha, ha! Hysterical! I thought Curmudgeon was CC’s brilliant comedian…</p>