The Meaning of Nothing and Everything
Posted in Uncategorized on October 24th, 2004It has been sometime since my last update of nutrient filled goodness, but I have been the victim of a research assignment and nazism in general. Needless to say I tire of all things engineering and hope that one day the world will consist entirely of chocolate, because then world hunger would be cured and everyone would die of happiness, or in the case of the diabetic amongst us, starvation.
Well, I’ve been thinking. Mostly about things which are not very fun to think about, but when not thinking about unfun things I was, in fact, thinking about fun things. But this doesn’t really relate to our discourse for today, oh readers. No, today we will talk about underlying meanings, and the amazing way in which much of the population of this green and blue coloured thingy manage to completely misunderstand it.
Now, the thing is about underlying meanings, or hidden meanings, if you will, is that they are hidden. Sometimes referred to as symbolism, and mostly used in entertainment media, such as films or books, these underlying meanings are the intricate lace that makes a film or book watchable many times over. In these times of chaos though, hidden meanings can be found in anything.
When the terminator says “I’ll be back” it is in fact a campaign promise for Arnold Schwarznegger, he predicted this far into the future (after all, he did come from the future), and he and James Cameron made a subtle joke about it on film. Look hard enough into the many writings of forums and internet sites in general and you’ll find even more absurd statements than these. What worries me the most is those that attribute hidden meanings to films such as “The Matrix”.
Now don’t get me wrong, the Matrix twology (I refuse to acknowledge the third film as anything other than a waste of space), in an ingenious piece of work, because it showcases beautifully some truly amazing computer generated effects and cleverly filmed sequences. It makes some fairly shallow references to many mythologies and makes a mockery of many hierachies, (the counsel, for example, is a typical American attempt at trying to represent all races and just looking like a bunch of stereotypes thrown together), but when you read pages and pages of internet articles on how deep the meanings go, you begin to realise that it is more than likely that the FatCowSki brothers didn’t really think of all these things and instead just threw a whole heap of stuff together and let the know-it-alls of world find meaning for themselves.
This sort of desperate search for meaning is of course most prolific in religion. In times of old, if an eagle attacked a rodent, it was a sign, if it didn’t it was a sign. The signs invariably pointed towards the hidden agendas of the priests concerned, but in modern times, our holy guides seem to truly believe in these god-statements scattered in the most unlikely of places. When a bridge falls down and nobody gets hurt, it’s a sign from God. When a bridge falls down and kills several hundred people, it’s all part of Gods plan. Well, all I can say is God is not a very efficient planner. He should have just given signs to the parents of those that died not to bother or at least to use condoms, since would save a whole heap of trouble.