even people that haven’t seen it generally describe their own personal journey through a field or a variety of fields via the model of the matrix. its possible that its just a natural human response to certain modern conditions, and the state of knowledge and systems we deal with

these folk religions are also usually based in stories, at first. its just odd to zoom out and notice that the extended metaphor (which is really here a euphemism for a myth) of the matrix is universal among the personal history of the intellectually active in our place and time

at the same time, what we call “new religious movements” often dont look like normal religions. it makes sense that in a hyper-individualistic time, anything like a folk belief would be, paradoxically, highly personalized: the individuals own story of their own personal paradigm.

but like any folk religion, it just feels like the default setting. usually these folk religions only get names or get noticed from the outside because everyone inside just sees things that way. its usually not even clear that they’re “religions”, theyre just part of a culture.

its so cliche to even bring up at this time that its easy to forget that something like however you would describe the matrix in 30 seconds has not always been a default setting for how intellectually active individuals engage with a wide variety of fields, and life itself

the extended metaphor of ‘the matrix’ is so common and all encompassing today that i would almost say it constitutes a type of meta folk religion: a modern folk religion that can be directed at whatever the individual chooses (health, politics, etc). essentially all of us do this

the post office can always delay packages around the holidays, so im review-maxxing now, before advent has even begun (prudent) another one: https://hell.twtr.plus/media/e8f94e03531e4a0705b193730690ec4c569f0bf9efeb0cfa7102d4e5e0b80458.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/a7a9535fb79db933aab6a64f3bcfc4b1b4541fb7199f55669b5da9c7d7ba7509.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/9d8282f6940a7030c3007cb6c4bd01d9ee29df9ceb692c316036818b0f4df186.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/ca6b8bdaed4fb0238f6a3115b473a03b4e608ce0c3f4f1567e64179b4b078be9.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/3f6bdcbbf5d5dd56b575873f08109751333e9d1d95d9e2422f2c99b7a317d99a.file

you can see some visual comparison here. im not sure if the red on the armor is the same tech, ive only seen a lot of the red lacquer items in person as small boxes or furniture but they always look very cool https://hell.twtr.plus/media/434bbe35577dd2c2131016b9da3d7d735c4ee20256a88d1c9a8ddbdb36e82390.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/d7f6a15d5b7422ea905e5aa1b7eb93c5f7a9e0fc3d580fdb934a282186d02dd6.file

theres a japanese artist who coated a gundam figure with traditional lacquer to make it look like classical japanese craftsmanship and a few years ago the metropolitan museum of art acquired it https://hell.twtr.plus/media/e0b840abb0a6392757ed7e33e511a50b37f8a7f2d7c20c7ad1eac0a0b3e1349b.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/689b7fd37b55f9e777c033ea3155969404e48b8776ac06ae6053426b96df47e5.file