We were watching The Matrix last night for about the third time. As I was watching, it suddenly struck me how the story of this digital world was a perfect analog for living in the current political milieu.

In The Matrix, of course, humans have been enslaved. They’re mere batteries giving their power to the machines which only pay attention to people when they become problems. In fact, they detest ordinary humans. “You are a plague,” they think. They even convince us that we are a plague and gain our support for the USA Patriot Act to keep it/us in check.

The real viruses — self-replicating programs named “Smith” — rove the world of the Matrix, seeking out those who would expose it for the lie it is and neutralizing them.

The majority of people don’t realize that the world they live in is not real. They do not realize they are being spoon-fed “truths” that serve no real purpose except to keep them enslaved. Their very energy, ironically, helps to maintain the false presentation of the world fed back to them; the excess is used by the machines for whatever purpose the machines decide upon. It’s amazing, though, that most people don’t recognize that the energy directed back is only directed back either to keep them complacent or, when they get out of hand, to destroy them.

So it is with The Bush Matrix. The only difference here is that those roving the world are apparently semi-secretly driven along by Karl, rather than Smith. Everything else is the same. The Bush Matrix uses people; extracts their energy for its own purposes.

Some of that energy, though, has to be returned to them to maintain the façade of the Bush Matrix. The lion’s share goes to friends — Halliburton, Bechtel, those who surround and support the President. But some of their energy is returned to the people. One friend recently told me he didn’t care that someone making millions of dollars per year might be getting back tens or even hundreds of thousands in tax cuts. He had gotten a $600 cut himself. No Democratic administration had ever returned any of his money to him.

Have you ever stood and stared at it, Morpheus? Marveled at its beauty? Its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives…oblivious. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. Agent Smith to Morpheus, The Matrix (1999).

To hell with social programs from which we might benefit. National health insurance? Affordable health care? Jobs in America instead of India or China? Investment in education? Ptooey! War is more exciting, anyway. Why keep our dollars, our sons, our daughters at home, when we can send them into the deserts of Iraq? There’s oil to be had by someone (already it’s bringing gasoline prices dow— oh, wait…) — we’ll even get some of our sons and daughters back!

You just don’t realize how thoroughly brainwashed people are until you hear someone say that millionaires receiving thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax cuts doesn’t bother them because they themselves got back six hundred dollars. Six hundred! Nevermind that what essentially happened was they got a cash advance on a credit card. Because make no mistake, that’s exactly what happened. In order to give my friend “his” $600, the Bush Administration is running up a deficit where Clinton and the Democrats had created a surplus; they’re borrowing the money. And instead of borrowing it to benefit all Americans through social programs — instead of buying us insurance, cheaper medicines, better (and more) schools — they just do a cash advance. They borrow a few billion, give chunks of $600 to ordinary people and chunks of thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands — millions if you happen to be the right corporation — and everyone is happy. Satisfied. Ensconced in the Matrix.

One day, though, the credit card comes due.

Guess where the machines that have taken over our world get the energy for that.