What is the Matrix?

Don't trust 'em as far

As you can throw 'em

Because as strong as you may be

You won't be able to move 'em an inch

But you don't have to believe me

Go ahead and be the corporate stooge

That they trained you to be

And then you'll see what you get for your loyalty

They call it, 'Down sizing'

But that's just a backhanded saying

For the phrase, 'We're gonna screw you

Until you're down on your knees'

In my opinion, The Matrix films provide the best metaphor our society has for understanding why organized evil and oppression are allowed to exist. The Matrix is not the physical world. As far as I'm concerned, the physical world is actually real and is in fact governed  by the laws of physics. Matrix is also not the Internet, despite what many seem to believe. The Matrix covers both these worlds.

So then, what is it? Well, that's complicated. Much like in the movie, it's nearly impossible to convey the size and scope of the Matrix to someone who doesn't already see it for what it is.  The Matrix is the social structure that enslaves humans to its will. It is the machinery of society that exists only to maintain itself, its influence, and its power independent of any human need.

It divides us from each other and ourselves through deception, and transforms us into servile engines of economic and political power. The machines that live off this power are institutions: large corporations, governments, schools, religious institutions, and even non-profit orgs. Every institution will reach a point in its existence where its primary function becomes self-preservation, instead of serving human need.

At this point it becomes a machine of the Matrix. For example, when they become machines, governments no longer serve people but instead seek to extend their power over them; corporations prioritize increasing shareholder value over producing quality products or otherwise serving the public good; schools view students as a means and not an end;  

and non-profits and charities spend more budget on fund raising activity than on their original focus. Inevitably all large institutions eventually become machines. They become too big for humanity.

You see it every day, everywhere

On the TV screen

Each time a different face or family

But it's always the same

"We worked here all our lives

Gave them everything we had

And now they say they're gonna move the factory

To a Third World country where the labor is cheap

But the fact, my friend, that you don't see

Is the money you spend on the goods they make

Supports their methods of abuse on the Third World scene

And in your very own backyard, yes, your country

So I won't be the consumer that they want me to be

Because the goods I own aren't going to set me free

So I won't buy that crap they want to sell me

Because the goods I own won't set anyone free

Lyrics from Consumer`s song by Anti Flag, ideas from Morpheus, smartest boylover in Deep Web :)