Ignorance is bliss

One of my favorite movies of all time is “The Matrix.” Anyone who has read my book knows I’ve made mention of it in a few spots.

In it, there’s a scene where the character Cypher (a sort of Judas) is eating steak with the enemy agent Smith inside of the Matrix, and he says: “After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.” This scene encapsulates Cypher’s longing to escape the harsh reality of the real world and return to the comfortable illusion of the Matrix, where he can enjoy the simple pleasures of life without the burden of knowledge.

“Welcome to the Real World” - Morpheus

However, unlike Cypher, I’m not talking about nine years. I’m talking about the last nine months.

Nine months of absolute hell, of murder, and of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

I started this blog shortly before I released my debut book, “You’re Already Dead.” I announced the book release date around October 6, with wide distribution and delivery set for October 22.

And then October 7 happened. In the words of Alan Watts, “wow-wee.”

By the time October 22nd rolled around, thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians were already murdered in Gaza, in the name of self-defense. And here I come with a book so morbidly titled “You’re Already Dead.”

What the hell was I thinking? The blog since that moment has morphed into something that somehow reconciles our desire to live a fulfilling life based on examples from other people, from nature, and now from genocide.

“I Know What You’re Thinking” - Morpheus

What started as a blog about “You’re Already Dead” and themes connected to it now takes on a new meaning, not one where we have to live life to its fullest or live well, but perhaps one where we just live with the courage to do the right thing, and the right thing now is to say: STOP, KILLING, KIDS. Or even simply, stop killing innocent civilians.

Now here we are, 277 days (nine plus months) since Hamas militants massacred nearly 1,000 innocent Israelis and took a couple hundred hostages. Many of the hostages were killed by airstrikes, again from their own army.

“What Is Real?” - Morpheus

Silence is complicity. There are so many people I know that haven’t uttered a peep because doing so may interfere with their business or their brand, and like Cypher, “ignorance is bliss.”

And I’m not even talking about posting something on social media. I haven’t done it much, save for the times I’ve tagged the cowards, Justin Trudeau or Pierre Poilievre, and their minions in pictures of the massacres and of the dead kids.

(Maybe some people post on the daily because that is their way of expressing their anger, their disgust at the façade of the western-led liberal world order. Resignation to the realization of their powerlessness.)

I’m talking about simply not being okay with watching dead kids day after day and being too scared for some reason to say: STOP, KILLING, KIDS. Or even simply, stop killing innocent civilians.

“How Deep Does the Rabbit Hole Go?” - Morpheus

The worst things one could ever see, we have witnessed. I saw horses, horses, for God’s sake… being gunned down by machine gun fire from a tank. I saw goats killed by snipers. I saw a kid with his eye popping out of his socket, crushed to death with his arm around his brother whose tongue was sticking out of his skull. I saw Reem dead next to her brother, and I heard Hind’s last words. I’ve also heard the last words of Israeli hostages who were begging for help only to be killed by soldiers in a tunnel. Unbelievable. Oh, and the ecocide, infanticide, and whatever “-cide” you use to describe the elimination of infrastructure, schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, ambulances, mosques, churches. Maybe after all, I don’t blame Cypher in “The Matrix” or anyone else here in “The Real World”,“ignorance is bliss.”

Maybe then, “ignorance is bliss” is a form of survival. Yeah?

Who the hell knows anymore?

“The Matrix Cannot Tell You Who You Are” - Morpheus

Stop killing Jews. Stop killing Muslims. Stop killing Christians. Stop killing kids. Stop killing women. Stop killing men. Stop killing. Stop killing. Stop killing.

Enough is enough is enough. Never again meant never again for all people.

Now with what seems to be the coming onslaught and destruction of Lebanon, and perhaps a wider regional war, “ignorance is bliss” may not spare anyone.

If, as I wrote in, and titled my book, “You’re Already Dead,” then now is the time to say enough is enough.

Thank you for reading.