I was re-watching The Matrix Revolutions the other day during a nice little party with my friends.
We were just finishing the chicken wings when we got to this scene near the end of the movie (spoiler alert if you haven’t already seen it!). I loved it because it highlights the key to the question; why go on if you feel life is meaningless?
Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson, why? Why, why do you do it? Why, 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 – could it be for love?
Illusions, Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately 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.
A simple answer, but what more do you need?
December 18th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
nice!
December 18th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
It is, isn’t it?
January 17th, 2007 at 2:31 am
well that seemed like an easy way to talk you into living.
i wish it were that easy for me.
December 17th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
it’s the movies. one liners are staple diet.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
What else? How about an answer to the question that’s not so glib it makes you want to spew your guts up? How about an answer that actually addresses the question, rather than eliding it with sophistry?
July 27th, 2008 at 11:00 am
What’s your answer, J.Random Hacker?
August 5th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Well, as you see, there is no answer to the meaning of life. Neo’s crappy answer just further confirms Smith’s words “Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose.”.
Oh an by the way, it’s just a stupid movie.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:08 am
I guess some will choose to keep going hopeing things will get better, but I don’t think everyone is to be so lucky. Everyone even the most sucidial want to live, but sometimes I think are enviroment just fails to provide us with what were looking for to keep going.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:29 am
There’s no meaning in life..if there is, there’s no evil nor goodness..
December 17th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I find I enjoy life when I’m in nature, or doing gardening. I really love plants and animals, but I think people just use each other. Love is a joke and a lie. Its makes me sad to be lonely, but I’d rather be alone and safe than with someone who will just hurt and use me to better their own lot in life.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Life is meaningless, if it had meaning then there would be no choice. If we chose can make our own meaning and go about as we please or leave it meaningless and drown in our own despair.
There is no good nor bad, but thinking only makes it so. ~Willam Shakespear
September 20th, 2009 at 10:46 am
what if i choose not , to?
October 17th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Although that scene does pose a fitting answer to an atheistic question, it is ironic because the story of neo is a allegory to jesus christ.
interesting.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:32 am
life is not meaningless we give it meaning every day by our choices and actions theres no illusion only truth bound with love everything up down inside or out is cased in love and light,but until we can awakin and truly see it and feel it and comprehend it we will continue to be miserable and be that drift wood that flows with what the majority says.we make the change the time is now today is the begginig of our brand new life.by the way there is alot of truth in the matrix.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Random Hacker is right. There is no purpose. That reply by Neo means nothing, it just distracts the questioner with wordplay. All this “you give it meaning” is complete shit — more distraction from the confusion and desperation for significance.
January 24th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
well then, would you rather life give you a meaning to live out? and what if you dont like it?
what if i told you life has has already given you a meaning, one that its given all of us? the only purpose of life is to die. and before that, you are supposed to procreate, so others can die later on. thats it. there is no supreme plan, no guideline for you to follow. just death. hooray!
to make our own purpose in life is what makes us human, what separates us from animals simply trying to live, have sex (and maybe make a half effort at being a parent), and die. Its what we do with our humanity, what we do with our choices in living, what we do with our thoughts, words, actions, and emotions that gives our lives purpose. and the only way to give our life meaning is to communicate our purpose to others, for it is only in the interpretation by a thinking mind that anything can be given meaning.
So to say i pursue life “because i choose to” is to say i pursue life of my own volition, with my own meaning, and with my own purpose. there really is no other way to go about it.
well, you can also let others tell you what to do. but that’s not really living.
February 18th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Inflammatory comments will not be tolerated. Keep it respectful, people.
March 4th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
There is no meaning in life. To choose to continue living is an act of futility, or maybe because one hopes that there is some conclusion that can be drawn past this stage of realization. For instance, I started out Christian, lost god, found god, lost him, became spiritual, lost my spirituality, and found it all meaningless. Is there something beyond that? I can hope, but ironically, hope, just as every other feeling, is an illusion. There is no good, no evil, no love, no joy. There are only environments one grows up in, learning what responses are seen by the majority as proper, learning what it looks like to love someone, learning what it feels like to lose someone. All are attempts to give voice to the neutral silence that takes us all: truth.