RQ To what extent do you agree with Fraud's claim
The Six Grand Illusions That Keep us Enslaved to the Matrix Argumentative Essay
I like lying under stars in October night skies. Now that you have read that look at the first letter of each word and put it all together (Illusions). What I mean by illusions is really the obstacles that keep us from making our own decisions. Additionally, a list and explanation of some of those illusions are in an article called The Six Grand Illusions That Keep us Enslaved to the Matrix, the author Sigmund Fraud claims that we live in a world of illusion. Later, he explains and identifies these illusions. Fraud is somewhat correct in his assertion that we live a world of illusion but is incorrect in his articulation that they are illusions, for I believe that they are more like obstacles, anyway I believe the most prominent 'illusions' are the illusions of prosperity and happiness, truth, and time.
Fraud first gives us the example that he calls the illusion of prosperity and happiness. One piece of evidence that helps prove the existence of that illusion is from a movie called The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir, in the show the paid actors advertise various products such as Mococoa Hot Cocoa or the kitchen appliance that you can chop slice and dice with(Weir 1998). This is called product placement and the person in charge of The Truman Show used it to make money since the show was nonstop so they did not have the time for commercials. The people doing the advertising say the lines in a 'happy' voice with a smile to show the audience that they are happy owning the product and that if you buy that product you will be happy. Another piece of evidence that proves the existence of that illusion is a concept from an article called Body Ritual of the Nacirema, the concept being that the more shrines a family has the wealthier it is(Miner 1). This has the same basic idea of the common phrase that having money equals happiness. Additionally, the idea is that the more shrines a family or person has the wealthier they are and wealth means that they are prosperous and therefore happy. One last piece of evidence that supports the illusion is a quote from the chairman of the De Beers Diamond company Nick Oppenheimer, saying " Diamonds are intrinsically worthless except for the deep psychological need they fill."(Santoso 1). Even though we pay a lot of money for diamond jewelry it is actually not worth anything but if you have enough money to buy something that worthless and expensive than you must be very wealthy. This goes back to my previous statement about the common phrase 'Money=Happiness' so the bigger the diamond, the more money you have and having more money means that you are prosperous and therefore happy. However, some believe that money does equal happiness because they think that some system of wealth or circulation of a currency is a natural process that constantly shows up in a human societies. Despite the opposition, it is really the idea that over time we have internalized the idea that an abundance of things makes us happy rather than doing something and finding out for ourselves if we are happy or not.
One other example that Fraud uses to show us that we live in a world of illusions, is what he calls the illusion of truth. One piece of evidence that supports this illusion is the idea that if you wear the right amount of makeup then that means that you look and feel beautiful(Wilcox 1). Wearing makeup can also be called concealing your facial features from the people you interact with or in some cases from yourself due to insecurity. More so, buying and wearing makeup to conceal the face and/or body features benefits people in high places, like the person in charge of the makeup company or people that have a large amount of shares in the makeup company. Another piece of evidence that proves the existence of that illusion, is a show called "Adam Ruins Everything" created by Adam Conover(Conover). This show reveals how certain aspects of our life that we have gotten used to are actually made up because it benefits someone. Additionally this show reveals the 'ugly' truth about various things. One last piece of evidence that supports this illusion is from one of the world's most commonly known religions called Christianity, the religion seems have a very narrow way of interpreting the truth, their holy book called the Bible has a verse that states that "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth"(John 17:17, The Bible). Which literally means that god's word is the truth and the Bible is god's word, therefore the Bible will sanctify anyone of any wrongdoings that has happened in the person's life. This very narrow way of thinking has and probably still will lead to ignorance of the truth or how I like to call it ignoring facts that we can prove for ourselves. Others will justify that people conceal the truth because society willingly and easily accepts it. Nonetheless, people do willingly believe it but only because they have internalized the idea that they have to.
One last example that Fraud gives us to prove that we are living in a world of illusion is what he calls the illusion of time. One piece of evidence that proves the existence of this illusion is from a school called Capuchino High School, at the start of every school year the school gives out free planners and at least once a week the students are encouraged by our teachers or people on staff, to use our planners to make sure that we do our studies and be ready for the future. By doing this they are forcing us to internalize the idea that time is short and we need to constantly be preparing for the future. This also tells us that we need to always think of the future. Another piece of evidence is from the Law of Compulsory Education, which in California it states that children from 6 years of age to 18 years of age are required to go to school for a certain amount of time each year (Grocke). This shows that people have planned out at least 12 years of our lives ahead of time, when we didn't even exist. This law constantly reminds us to go to school or we won't have a good future that abides to the laws. One last piece of evidence that supports the existence of this illusion is from a book called Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it is not part of the main plot but this book mentions a class called Divination which is basically a class that teaches students about how to predict the future using various methods, it was mentioned as a popular subject that would help a student figure out what they wanted to do in the future and it was highly recommended by a studious individual known as Percival Weasley. The way it was portrayed it in the book suggests that it was an important subject for them to choose, because without it they wouldn't be able to prepare for the future and would always have to beware of it. This shows how the people in the book are so afraid for the future that they force themselves to take a class that they don't even like or find use in. Some might argue that we need to beware of the future otherwise we wouldn't survive. The point remains that everybody is going overboard with worrying for the future.
The author of the article called The Six Grand Illusions that Keep us Enslaved to the Matrix, is mostly correct in his claim that we live in a world of illusion but is inaccurate in his use of the word illusion being that the 'illusions' that he talks about are really obstacles, but the most prominent illusions he speaks of are the illusions of prosperity and happiness, truth, and time. Fraud believes thart by pointing out these illusions he leads you, the reader, to find the evidence of these illusions in you real life and realize the impact that these illusions have on your free will. Well, so that both of us can go back to doing stuff that we think of as more entertaining than reading or writing an essay I will get straight to the point of this, wake up and realize that there's a bunch of nonsense in the way of us making our own decisions and try to ignore it as much as you can and go on leading your own lives.
MLA Citations
Aitken, Robert. The Holy Bible. American Bible Society ed. New York: Arno, 1968. John 17:17. Print.
Adam Ruins Everything. Dir. Adam Conover. Perf. Adam Conover. TruTV. Film.
Grocke, Vicky. "Law Of Compulsory Education." Web. 4 Dec. 2015.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Arthur A. Levine , an Imprint of Scholastic, 1999. Print.
Santoso, Alex. "10 Facts About Diamonds You Should Know." Neatorama. 1 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 Dec. 2015.
The Truman Show. Dir. Peter Weir. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2000. DVD.
Wilcox, Christie. "The Science of Makeup." YouBeauty. 3 June 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2015.
