05 The Cave

MEETING MORPHEUS

In The Matrix (1999), Morpheus vividly describes to Neo a prison in what is known as The Pill Scene.

Morpheus: I imagine that right now, you're feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?

Neo: You could say that.

Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?

Neo: No.

Morpheus: Why not?

Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.

Morpheus: I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo: The Matrix.

Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?

Neo: Yes.

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.


ALLEEGORY OF THE CAVE

In Plato’s Republic, the Allegory of the Cave is contained in 514a - 521d. Socrates says the following to Glaucon:

‘I want you to go on to picture the enlightenment or ignorance of our human condition somewhat as follows. Imagine an underground chamber like a cave, with a long entrance open to the daylight and as wide as the cave. In this chamber are men who have been prisoners there since they were children, their legs and necks being so fastened that they can only look straight ahead of them and cannot turn their heads. Some way off, behind and higher up, a fire is burning, and between the fire and the prisoners and above them runs a road, in front of which a curtain-wall has been built, like the screen at puppet shows between the operators and their audience, above which they show their puppets. Imagine further that there are men carrying all sorts of gear along behind the curtain-wall, projecting above it and including figure of men and animals made of wood and stone and all sorts of other materials, and that some of these men, as you would expect, are talking and some are not. Tell me, do you think our prisoners could see anything of themselves or their fellows except the shadows thrown by the fire on the wall of the cave opposite them?’

Socrates proceeds to describe an unforeseen consequence if one of the prisoners were released:

‘Then think what would naturally happen to them if they were released from their bonds and cured of their delusions. Suppose one of them were let loose, and suddenly compelled to stand up and turn his head and look and walk towards the fire; all these actions would be painful and he would be too dazzled to see properly the objects of which he used to see the shadows. What do you think he would say if he was told that what he used to see was so much empty nonsense and that he was now nearer reality and seeing more correctly, because he was turned towards objects that were more real, and if on top of that he were compelled to say what each of the passing objects was when it was pointed out to him? Don’t you think he would be at a loss, and think that what he used to see was far truer than the objects now being pointed out to him?’

It would indeed be a great shock to the prisoner to confront a very unsettling idea that a reality that once seem concrete was but a distortion.

‘And if he were forcibly dragged up the steep and rugged ascent and not let go till he have been dragged out into the sunlight, the process would be a painful one, to which he would much object, and when he emerged into the light his eyes would be so dazzled by the glare of it that he wouldn’t be able to single one of the things he was now told were real. He would need to grow accustomed to the light before he could seer things in the upper world outside the cave. First he would find it easiest to look at the shadows, next at the reflections of men and other others in water, and later on at objects themselves. After that he would find it easier to observe the heavenly bodies and the sky itself at night, and to look at the light of the moon and stars rather than at the sun and its light by day. The thing he would be able to do last would be to look directly at the sun itself, and gaze at it without using the reflections in water or any other medium, but as it is in itself’

What would be the reflection on the cave system that he was born into?

‘And when he thought of his first home and what passed for wisdom there, and of his fellow-prisoners, don’t you think he would congratulate himself on his good fortune and be sorry for them? There was probably a certain amount of honor and glory to be won among the prisoners, and prizes for keensightedness for those best able to remember the order of the sequence among the passing shadows and so be best able to divine their future appearances. Will our released prisoner hanker after these prizes or envy this power or honor? Won’t he be more likely to feel as Homer says, that he would far rather be “a serf in the house of some landless man”, or indeed anything else in the world, than hold opinions and live the life that they do?’

But what enables a prisoner to ascend the cave system?

‘But our argument indicates that the capacity for knowledge is innate in each man’s mind, and that the organ by which he learns is like an eye which cannot be turned from the darkness to the light unless the whole body is turned; in the same way the mind as a whole must be turned away from the world of change until its eye can bear to look straight at reality, and at the brightest of all realities which is what we call the good’

Who is the benefactor that releases the prisoner? How does the benefactor select which prisoner to release? The mind, as Morpheus describes, must contain a splinter. The prisoner knows that something is not quiet right with the reality that he has been given. The benefactor has the faculty to detect this and sends the candidate messages to steer them within the simulated reality towards the Unforeseen Consequence.

THE LAMBDA INCIDENT

In the first chapter of the video game Half Life named ‘Black Mesa Inbound,’ the player enters the consciousness of a scientist named Dr. Gordon Freeman as he travels to work onboard an automatic rail transit system into the depths of the Black Mesa Research Facility in the desert of New Mexico. The second chapter ‘Anomalous Materials' begins as he disembarks and makes his way to a test chamber within Test Lab C-33/a where he is required to handle a mineral sample as part of an experiment. Sometime prior to the experiment the researchers of the Black Mesa Research Facility had been able to use advancements in teleportation technology to gain access to a extradimensional realm known as Xen. The exotic minerals that were collected from Xen were found to have properties ideal for teleportation research. In order to study the mineral samples retrieved from Xen, the researchers construct an Anti-Mass Spectrometer in Test Lab C-33/a. The team supervising the researchers were particularly interested in a newly-acquired mineral sample designated GG-3883. It is GG-3883 that Gordan is tasked with pushing into the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. This effectively triggers a rare and catastrophic quantum event known as a Resonance Cascade which causes a rupture in the space-time continuum and allows aliens from another dimensional realm to teleport into the facility. In the third chapter, ‘Unforeseen Consequences,’ Gordan must escape the Lab and enter the Sewer System. At certain points Gordan can observe the G-Man watching him. Although holding a briefcase and dressed in a business suit, the G-Man can wield reality-bending powers. Gordan can be deemed a prisoner. G-Man plays some crucial part in setting in motion the Lambda Incident and the subsequent Unforeseen Consequence Gordan finds himself in. In his HEV suit, he escapes the darkness of the facility; he ascends to the surface; he transcends Gordan becomes the Free-man. His bonds are broken.

‘What do you think would happen if he went back to sit in his old seat in the cave? Wouldn’t his eyes be blinded by the darkness, because he has come in suddenly out of the sunlight? And if he had to discriminate between the shadows, in competition with the other prisoners, while he was still blinded and before his eyes got used to the darkness - a process that would take some time - wouldn’t he be likely to make a fool of himself? And they would say that his visit to the upper world had ruined his sight, and that his visit to the upper world had ruined his sight, and that the ascent was not worth even attempting. And if anyone tried to release them and lead them up, they would kill him if they could lay hands on him’

The Republic 517a

In ‘Point Insertion’ the first chapter of Half Life 2, Gordan is taken out of stasis by the G-Man and placed on a train inbound to an urban center called City 17. Twenty years have transpired since the events of Black Mesa. The Earth has now been conquered by a multidimensional empire called the Combine. The Combine have established a brutal police state that biologically assimilates humans with other species. At the heart of City 17 is the towering Combine Citadel where the Combine’s puppet ruler Dr. Wallace Breen governs. Breen was the former administrator of Black Mesa and the one who negotiated Earth’s surrender following the Lambda Incident. When Breen learns of Gordon’s return the Citadel lights up with Combine activity. As Gordan finds his way out of City 17 it is clear that the citizens live in a dystopia where they have little freewill, security, privacy or hope. They all seem like prisoners in a dark place. City 17 is their Cave. When Gordan is inserted into City 17, he returns to a Cave system. City 17 is an advanced Cave more complex arrangement that the one envisaged by Plato. Through genetic modification prisoners can be turned into Combine. Some are turned into Civil Protection. Some are turned into Overwatch Soldiers. They are all effectively Security Forces within the Cave system purposely installed to quickly quash and disseminate any threat to Combine occupation and rule. Gordan represents the Free-Man. He is the one that returns to save his fellow prisoners. Gordan was not just a theoretical physicist; I am going to argue that he was a philosopher.

‘You see then, we shan’t be unfair to our philosophers, but shall be quite fair in what we say when we compel them to have some care and responsibility for others. We shall tell them that philosophers born in other states can reasonably refuse to take part in the hard work of politics; for society produces them quite involuntarily and unintentionally, and it is only just that anything that grows up on its own should feel it has nothing to repay for an upbringing which it knows to no one. “But,” we shall say, “we have bred you both for your own sake and that of he whole community to act as leaders and kind-bees in a hive; you are better and more fully educated than the rest and better qualified to combine the practice of philosophy and politics. You must therefore each descend in turn and live with your fellows in the cave and get used to seeing in the dark.”’

520c

Breen makes the following broadcast as news of Gordon’s return spreads across the citizens of City 17:

“We now have direct confirmation of a disruptor in our midst, one who has acquired an almost messianic reputation in the minds of certain citizens. His figure is synonymous with the darkest urges of instinct, ignorance and decay. Some of the worst excesses of the Black Mesa Incident have been laid directly at his feet. And yet unsophisticated minds continue to imbue him with romantic power, giving him such dangerous poetic labels as the One Free Man, the Opener of the Way. Let me remind all citizens of the dangers of magical thinking. We have scarcely begun to climb from the dark pit of our species' evolution. Let us not slide backward into oblivion, just as we have finally begun to see the light. If you see this so-called Free Man, report him. Civic deeds do not go unrewarded. And contrariwise, complicity with his cause will not go unpunished. Be wise. Be safe. Be aware.”

I will not deny you the pleasure of playing to the end of the game if you have not already done so to find out what happens.

RISE AND SHINE

G-Mans HALF LIFE 2 Speech.:

“Rise and shine, Mister Freeman. Rise and... shine. Not that I... wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No one is more deserving of a rest... and all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until... well, let's just say your hour has... come again. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So, wake up, Mister Freeman. Wake up and... smell the ashes...”

RESONANCE CASCADE

By now you have probably read my earlier post ‘Half Life’. This was my Resonance Cascade. The Unforeseen Consequence was that my dream of finishing university, landing a lucrative job, buying an expensive apartment and obtaining a really hot girlfriend was shut down very quickly. In 515d quoted above, Plato puts forward the idea that the prisoner will initially feel pain when released. There is a line in 516d that I would like to repeat:

“There was probably a certain amount of honor and glory to be won among the prisoners, and prizes for keensightedness for those best able to remember the order of the sequence among the passing shadows and so be best able to divine their future appearances.”

Back when I was at MHS I distinctly recall standing up at assemblies to sing the school song ‘Honor the Work’. The decree for honoring the work was that the work will honor you. Keensightedness equated to academic potential. Prizes for keensightedness were given in the form of grades, academic award badges, tie colors, pocket letterings. The objects of the cast shadows were the concepts taught in the subjects we studied. With the classroom as the cave we were left to fathom concepts such as Honor and Glory by their shadow. Knowing their shadow was all that was required to pass the exam. Also knowing about Wisdom and Justice was useless if the exam was on Honor and Glory. When I finished high school all that keensightedness had left me blind to any idea other than to go to university. So when I had my first admission to a psych-ward and felt this meant I couldn’t go back to university I felt a great numbness, and soon spiraled into a major depressive episode. For months after being discharged I would spend entire days just sleeping. For a few cycles, I recovered, returned to university, got sick again. In the end I withdrew from my course. But it was one of the best decision of my life. I got acquainted with Pain. Not it’s shadow; but the real object. In just the first few years of being diagnosed I had several admissions, was prescribed various anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers, had twelve sessions of ECT, was emotionally abused by an OT, been neglected by doctors, nurses and psychiatrists, had my stomach pumped after ingesting 80 Seroquel tablets in a suicide attempt, lived in a community care unit for two years and tried to unsuccessfully suffocate myself in the boot of my car, and been abandoned from most of my university friendship clicks. But the pain was what was instrumental in empowering me, in instilling systemic and metamorphic change in my ways of thinking. I felt able to recondition myself and come to peace with the fact that whilst I don’t have a degree, there is a vast ocean of things that I feel thankful for.

Sachs was a first-year Engineering girl I become friends with during my time at Monash. I met Sachs through my other friend Navs, whom she was dating. Sachs came from a very traditional Sinhalese family and she conveyed to me that having a boyfriend was something completely new to her. Sachs ended up failing 6 of her 8 first-year Engineering units. She had to sit in front of a review panel to explain her poor performance. The panel were forgiving and gave her another chance. But her family were not forgiving towards her for having jeopardized her degree. Sachs felt that it had been due to all the social distractions that had chewed into her study routine. It was enough for her to completely isolate herself socially from everyone, and she was never seen in the Hargrave-Andrew Library ever again. We had some Indian family friends who had a son a bit older than me. He was supposedly a good student, but in one year his parents were dismayed to find out that he had obtained a NP for one of his subjects. Such was the level of their fright that they thought it necessary to arrange an Intervention where he was reproached and given a stern talking to by a host of friends and relatives. Whilst the last example might be comical, the all or nothing mentality that is implanted, very often through culture, in a young persons mind as they deal with university can ultimately backfire. I recall that scene in the movie ‘3 Idiots’ were an engineering student kills himself after failing to meet a project deadline for an autonomous drone he is working on. The film correctly holds society partly accountable for creating the circumstances in which people feel they need to take their lives when they fail to obtain sufficient qualifications. What is bold about the film is the way it invites students to stop being subservient to the pressures placed on them by society. The philosophy of pursuing something only if it aligns with a passion is given meaningful context. That happiness should be the ultimate goal in choosing a career path is also explored. There is also the very valid point that university should only be entered out of a joy of learning rather than merely a means to obtain a degree. Here are some quotes that tie in with the above points:

"Do you know why I come first? Why? Because I'm in love with machines. Engineering is my passion!" - Rancho

"If I become a photographer? I'll just earn less, right? My home will be small, my car will be small. But, dad, I will be happy! I will be really happy. Whatever I do, I'll be doing it from my heart." - Farhan

"Today my respect for that idiot shot up. Most of us went to college just for a degree. No degree meant no plum job, no pretty wife, no credit card, no social status. But none of this mattered to him, he was in college for the joy of learning, he never cared if he was first or last." - Farhan.

I have some abstract views about education. I feel that the education I received from a computer screen was just as valuable to that given to me via a classroom. By creating, planning and proving administration to cities in Sim City 2000 I was able to put on my ‘Guardian’ thinking hat. By micromanaging futuristic armies in Starcraft I was able to put on my ‘Auxiliary’ thinking hat. By trading and streamlining agricultural supply and demand in Anno 1800 I was able to put on my ‘Producer’ thinking hat. All three parts of my soul were given an education. If you have no idea what I mean by Guardian, Auxiliary and Producer don’t worry, I’ll get to that a bit later.

In 2008, whilst playing the Star Wars title, The Force Unleashed I was to stumble across the character Captain Juno Eclipse, a human female pilot and officer in the Imperial Navy, who is assigned to the Rogue Shadow. Here is the moment Starkiller first meets Juno [05]. I found her so alluring and intriguing, so much so that it led to a embarrassing and public psychotic episode during which I actually posted an ad on the seek employment website for a female pilot to drive me around on any ‘mission’ I thought up for my silver 525e. The ad was so absurd it went viral and before I knew it The Age digital and Forbes were doing stories on it. Following the wake of public humiliation, my mental health deteriorated quite a bit in this period. Two years later in 2010, feeling a sense of hopelessness, I ingested 80 Seroquel tablets and woke up in a hospital ICU. I took the tablets at home. 5 minutes after swallowing them I had a rush of second thoughts. I burst into the living room to tell my father what I had done before blacking out and collapsing at his feet. I have no memory of being in the ambulance or having my stomach pumped with charcoal. The memory that I do have is violently waking up regurgitation on my hospital gown and pillow. Apart from my hospital gown I was completely naked. The jeans that I had been wearing had been cut open by the surgeons with scissors. Attached to various parts of my body were numerous IV drips. I had a urinary catheter and a drainage bag so I could pass urine. In the ICU there were rows of beds filled with other patients. A surgeon, who I was told by the nurses had been responsible for saving my life, came to check on me. He was a Indian doctor who wore a Hindu Aum around his neck. I was interrogated as to why I so inanely and idiotically felt inclined to forfeit life on account of not being able to finish university. He coldly chided my actions to a student nurse before storming off to join the other machines. I was left with the student nurse who sat down to read one of her university textbooks. He was made or fashioned in a society that had culturally glorified his ascension to the upper echelon ranks of a doctor, but one that ardently refused to assume or display any accountability or empathy for any Unforeseen Consequences arising from the programming of people to believe that having a degree meant everything. He was a machine. It took me the experience of waking up in an ICU to realize this. The world was a simulation that dangled degrees in front of everyone. It was a world made for machines. Machines that didn’t question the nature of things. I had all my drips and catheter yanked out of me and I was flushed down into the psych-ward, and then a month later back into the community.

THE MATRIX (1999): NEO WAKING FROM THE SIMULATED REALITY - [01]

This was when I was picked up by Juno in the Rogue Shadow. I had been objectifying her. The object that I was looking at was merely her shadow. I became more attuned to looking at her real beauty, the one that made her an ancient Roman goddess who was the protector and special counsellor of the state [06]. I become more attuned to behold the objects that she valued, like Justice and Virtue, which in my heart began to outshine objects like Honor and Glory. I felt able to feel her warm embrace. I felt her beauty flow through all experience. Consider this song by Mandy Moore: [02]. Or consider the third-person action-adventure hack and slash video game Ryse: Son of Rome, the players assumes the character of a Roman centurion names Marius, who is at time watched over by a female deity [03]. My belief that there were benevolent deities or forces at play was augmented by all my observances, and the observances of others. In his work, Meditations, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius writes, ‘Since it is possible that you might depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve you in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, why would I wish to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence? But in truth they do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means in man’s power to enable him not to fall into real evils.’ I felt that knowing and revering Juno was what directed me to ascend the dark, unenlightened cave, culture or mess that I was born into. It was the fragment of her divinity inside of me that was the splinter in my mind. It was this divinity that led to me to an Unforeseen Consequence. She helped me recognize my potential to exit my cave and observe the light of the sun which was radiating Goodness and Virtue. She was my G-Man. She was my Benefactor. She told me that all I had to aim for is greatness. And all I have to search for is knowledge, kindness, empathy, resilience, frugality, self-discipline and virtue to be great. Wealth, popularity, fame, reverence or respect are but shadows of greatness. To be able to not fuss over them is a great emancipation and a sign of a higher greatness within oneself. Consider the following two quotes.

“Reflect often on the speed with which all things in being, or coming into being, are carried past and swept away. Existence is like a river in a ceaseless flow, its actions a constant succession of change, its cause innumerable in their variety: scarcely anything stands still, even what is most immediate. Reflect too on the yawning gulf of past and future time, in which all things vanish. So in all this it must be folly for anyone to be puffed with ambition, racked in struggle, or indignant at his lot - as if this was anything lasting or likely to trouble him for long. "

Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. 5.23

And:

“That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages. We desire both to be respectable and to be respected. But, upon coming into the world, we soon find that wisdom and virtue are by no means the sole objects of respect; nor vice and folly, of contempt. We frequently see the respectful attentions of the world more strongly directed towards the rich and the great, than towards the wise and the virtuous. We see frequently the vices and follies of the powerful much less despised than the poverty and weakness of the innocent. To deserve, to acquire, and to enjoy the respect and admiration of mankind, are the great objects of ambition and emulation. Two different roads are presented to us, equally leading to the attainment of this so much desired object; the one, by the study of wisdom and the practice of virtue; the other, by the acquisition of wealth and greatness. Two different characters are presented to our emulation; the one, of proud ambition and ostentatious avidity; the other of humble modesty and equitable justice. Two different models, two different pictures, are held out to us, according to which we may fashion out own character and behavior; the one more gaudy and glittering in its coloring; the other more correct and more exquisitely beautiful in its outline: the one forcing itself upon the notice of every wandering eye, the other, attracting the attention of scare any body but the most studious and careful observer.”

Adam Smith. The Moral Sentiments.


THE MATRIX

The Matrix was made in 1999. It was also in 1999 that the Australian rock bank Silverchair released their third album, ‘Neon Ballroom,’ which featured the track ‘Anthem for the Year 2000’: [LINK]. The imagery used in the music video is quite interesting. It world presented has semblance to the world of in Half-Life 2. There is a towering Citadel like the one in City 17. You have a puppet leader like Dr. Breen. Also the citizens are kept in line by a brutal police state. What the song is critical of through lyrics like, ‘We are the youth, we’ll take your fascism away,’ is a society with a authoritarian culture that is oppressive and asphyxiating to the young people. Half-Life 2 was made in 2004. The puppets of society, the parents, teachers, generic uncles and aunties, barrage youth with the need to unlock wealth, status, property, rank and reputation through education. And this is enforced by the invisible hand of hyper-capitalist forces that erect the Combine like architecture of degree factories or institutions. it is the flagrant churning of competition and the fear of loss in not seizing an education, that which is driven by these Combine forces into the herd-animal minds of the citizens, creates a steady flow into the lecture halls of these institutions. But I felt a great appreciation to the message of the song ‘Another Brick In The Wall’ by Pink Floyd: [04]. Fuck the wall, I prefer happiness to being a brick.

DECISION TO RETURN TO THE CAVE

I felt the tripe-like version of happiness dished out in the Cave that I had exited quite toxic. I felt loathing for the Cave. I felt aspired to go back as a saboteur. I treated it as an important assignment. This was the start of Project Maelstrom. In March 2022 I published my first iteration of this blog except that it was in the form of a ebook. It was titled ‘Cyberpunk Kid Infinite: The Poison Apple.’ The first place I published it was on Amazon. After creating an IngramSparks account I got it to also list on the Booktopia and Kobo website. I even bought a domain name with a Squarespace subscription. I also tried unsuccessfully to promote my ebook on both Facebook and Twitter. A few of my more sympathetic friends bought copies. But I could tell that no one could be bothered reading it. To the world I was a complete nobody. I was obviously a total loser who didn’t finish university, was unemployed, still lived with my parents and had a history of mental illness. Who was I to philosophize about anything? One uncle that bought a copy was so obviously indolent to read it that he offered the consolation that he would get his daughter to read it and fill him in. Mum asked him at one point over a phone conversation if his daughter had made any progress on it. He repeated that she was filling him in, but this bluff was exposed when Mum asked him to recount anything he had picked up, as he fell silent. He eventually mumbled something about the book being about my dad. And as a sure sign he had no understanding of the content, all he could talk about was the title; it was a little esoteric and abstract in his opinion. This irked me because I felt the title became a lot more self-evident after reading through it. His sheer indifference and insensitivity to my ideas which I has so carefully tried to express and articulate left me feeling quiet jaded. R2-D2 (mum) was the only one that went to great labors to understand and read it. Two of my friends who had given me ‘advice’ to desist because they believed I was going through a psychotic episode belayed that I wasn’t listening to them, and even demanded an apology for my ‘stubbornness’ in deviating from their prescribed course of action; one of them expressed how she felt deserving of an ‘apology’ for even making a request to friends to buy my book, ‘Where’s my apology?.’ And then there was dad: 'This book is pointless. It is a false venture. No one is going to read it. No one is going to give you any money for it. You are going to end up homeless. You must stop writing it immediately. Shut down your computer and go to sleep. How are you going to make your car repayments if you are not going to work? Finding that job was the best thing to have happened to you. It was your dream job. You got an opportunity to get paid properly. Respect that. Look at that Auntie, the one who writes books for a living. She barely gets buy. There is no honor or wealth or security in writing books! There is absolutely no point in any of this. There is tiredness in your face. Please stop this immediately!’ And I was like, ‘Didn’t you write a book?’ And he replied, ‘’Yes, but that was different.’ And it was then that I realized that what I very much facing was that in the brink of finding Black Mesa East, I was actually being assaulted by a Ka-27 Combine Helicopter. What did I do? I put on some music and tuned out. I tuned into some RATM. I tuned into their song ‘Guerrilla Radio’ [04]:

Lights out. Guerrilla Radio, turn that shit up. Lights out. Guerrilla Radio, turn that shit up. Lights out. Guerrilla Radio, turn that shit up. Lights out. Guerrilla Radio.

And by listening to Guerrilla Radio I tuned out and brought that Ka-27 crashing down. Upon which I freed myself to enter Black Mesa East.

There is also the following RATM song:

Now renegades are the people with their own philosophies
They change the course of history
Everyday people like you and me
We're the renegades, we're the people
With our own philosophies
We change the course of history
Everyday people like you and me

Renegades of Funk - RATM [06]

This is when, on my second iteration/attempt of Project Maelstrom commenced on the 4th of July 2022, I became Anti-Citizen One. [07][08].

Citizen… Wake Up. [09]…

With poetry, my mind I flex
Flip like Wilson, vocals never lacking that finesse
Who I got to, who I got to do to wake you up?
To shake you up, to break the structure up

Wake Up - RATM

NEW WORLD ORDER

God is Dead - [09]

Anthem for the Year 2000 - [10]

RIOT TIME

Paramore - Riot! [11]

SOCIETY NEEDS BRAND NEW EYES

Paramore - Brand New Eyes [12]


FEELING SORRY

I feel no sympathy, you live inside a cave
You barely get by, the rest of us are trying
There's no need to apologize
I've got no time for feeling sorry

Feeling Sorry - Paramore [13]

PROJECT MAELSTROM BOMBTRACK [14]

It goes a-one, two, three another funky, radical Bombtrack
Started as a sketch in my notebook
And now dope hooks make punks take another look
My thoughts ya hear and ya begin to fear
That ya card will get pulled if ya interfere
With the thoughts from a militant, militant mind
Hard line, hard line after hard line
Landlords and power whores on my people, they took turns
Dispute the suits, I ignite, and then watch 'em burn.

MASS MOVEMENT-EXODUS FROM THE CAVE [15]

On the level of our unconsciousness
For example, what does the billboard say?
"Come and play, come and play
Forget about the movement"

Freedom - Rage Against the Machine


CONCLUSION:

… Time to Rage against the Machine Cave of Ignorance ….