Politicians

BienTan

The issue of politics, politicians and bureaucracy has always made me a bit curious within the frame of The Matrix. It's always made me interested in my life beyond this game but the situation of simulated reality brings up some interesting questions.

First of all, what do you think politicians and leaders are in The Matrix? Are they Programs, people completely suckered in by The System or are they just total fabrications that don't even have avatars in The Simulation?

I'd like to hear your theories on the matter and we'll see where the discussion goes from there.

Pyraci

I would say a little of both, actually. One thing I see consistently with the Machines in the Matrix is their manipulation of humans to control other humans. It makes sense; why try to directly control people when you can make them control each other for you? They do that even now, with us outside. I would think that these people would likely be the brainwashed and blindly-obedient, usually elected officials.(Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, etc.)

Since the aim of the government is control over the lives of bluepills(lessens their ability to actively question and get support for working against the system), I do still think some programs are in place, just to make sure their collective agenda moves forward as planned. These would in-theory be your appointed people(Administrative cabinets, justices, heads of Intelligence and Investigation agencies, etc.)

**shinpseudo** · 10/29/2007 11:57:18

Well, the (LESIG) mayor of Mega City logged in a few times on Syntax about a year ago. I can't remember his name for the life of me, and can't check my friend list since I'm at work; someone else probably remembers. In any event, he was doing the meet-and-greet with blues and reds alike, and even had a staged press conference at the court house in Tabor where his security staff (and even wife, I think) were present. So at the very least, they do have avatars...however I don't recall if he was a bluepill, redpill, or program.

Tenshi

shinpseudo wrote:

Well, the (LESIG) mayor of Mega City logged in a few times on Syntax about a year ago. I can't remember his name for the life of me, and can't check my friend list since I'm at work; someone else probably remembers. In any event, he was doing the meet-and-great with blues and reds alike, and even had a staged press conference at the court house in Tabor where his security staff (and even wife, I think) were present. So at the very least, they do have avatars...however I don't recall if he was a bluepill, redpill, or program.

Rich Paddock

**cov**

Interesting topic! Yeah, I think it's probably a combination of both programs to regulate political activity and humans who subconsciously want to preserve the Matrix. Remember that Morpheus explained to Neo in the Woman-in-the-Red-Dress trainer that many bluepills are so dependent on the System that they would die to protect it. I could definitely see how some bluepills would channel that impulse to preserve the status quo by focusing on administrative and political careers.

At the same time, the Machines would have to influence politics to a significant degree. There would have to be no major events that would provide a benchmark in time so that people would not begin to wonder why it was always 1999. The System would have to regulate political activity so that the influence of any real political change was minimized. The Machines would have to make it so that even opposing political parties would negate each others' progress - or emulate each others' tactics and platforms so closely that they started to sound indistinguishable from each other - resulting in a stagnant political homogeneity. . .

Wait . . . the more I think about this, the more this is sounding like America . . .

*depressed*

**CPT_Starschwar**

I think Paddock was a player event.

Tenshi

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the whole paddock thing was a player event run by the Tetrgrammaton actually...

**shinpseudo**

Tenshi wrote:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the whole paddock thing was a player event run by the Tetrgrammaton actually...

So that's why he wouldn't join my crew.

Pyraci

cov wrote:

Wait . . . the more I think about this, the more this is sounding like America . . .
*depressed*

Amen.

That is why I mentioned the blindly-obedient elected official/programmed appointed official theory. All too familiar. -_-

**MatrixRefugee**

BienTan wrote:

First of all, what do you think politicians and leaders are in The Matrix? Are they Programs, people completely suckered in by The System or are they just total fabrications that don't even have avatars in The Simulation?

I think it's a little bit of all three, on a escalating level of unrealness: the lowest-level officials (ie. local mayors, etc) are probably the people suckered in by the System, mid-level (Senators, etc) might be Programs, and the highest-level (ie. the President, vice-president) are pure fabrications.

Pyraci

Wait, what's the difference between the programs and the pure fabrications? They're both just simulations of real people, there to make the simulation look real as the Machines work.

**MatrixRefugee**

Pyraci wrote:

Wait, what's the difference between the programs and the pure fabrications? They're both just simulations of real people, there to make the simulation look real as the Machines work.

I think the difference would be that the programs would have a certain amount of sentience and self-awareness, while the fabrications would be more like puppets. It'd be the difference between a System program and, say something like the Woman in the Red Dress or a Proxy Sim.

Pyraci

Yeah, but they're both still programs. I mean, in the MxO setting, we forget that sims are anything but, well... sims, but programs are programs, regardless of the amount of sentience or intelligence they hold... Ah well, either way...

But back on the subject, I wonder if anything like this will be discussed in the canon storyline. It seems like a really interesting, feasible topic, and I see the similarities to our segregations and divisions of power.

lastbesthope

Tenshi wrote:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the whole paddock thing was a player event run by the Tetrgrammaton actually...

Best player event ever.

Officier Cheeseburger and Offcier w33d were outstanding RPers!