Matrix Reloaded: Merovingian's Views of Causality and Purpose of Purpose

Scene Dialogue #

Morpheus: We are looking for the Keymaker.
Merovingian: Oh, yes, it is true. The Keymaker, of course. But this is not a reason, this is not a why. The Keymaker himself, his very nature, is a means, it is not an end. And so to look for him is to be looking for a means to do what?
Neo: You know the answer to that question.
Merovingian: But do you?
You think you do, but you do not. You are here because you were sent here. You were told to come here, and then you obeyed. It is, of course, the way of all things. You see, there is only one constant one universal. lt is the only real truth. Causality. Action, reaction.
Cause and effect.
Morpheus: Everything begins with choice.
Merovingian: No. Wrong.
Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without. Look there at that woman. My God, just look at her affecting everyone around her. So obvious, so bourgeois, so boring. But wait. Watch. You see, I have sent her a dessert a very special dessert. I wrote it myself. It starts so simply each line of the program creating a new effect, just like poetry.
First a rush, heat. Her heart flutters. You can see it, Neo, yes? She does not understand why. Is it the wine? No. What is it then? What is the reason? And soon it does not matter. Soon the why and the reason are gone and all that matters is the feeling itself. And this is the nature of the universe. We struggle against it, we fight to deny it but it is, of course, pretense. It is a lie. Beneath our poised appearance the truth is, we are completely out of control.
Causality. There is no escape from it. We are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace, is to understand it, to understand the why. “Why” is what separates us from them you from me. “Why” is the only real source of power. Without it, you are powerless. And this is how you come to me, without why, without power. Another link in the chain.

Highlights #

• Causality is the only constant in this universe.
• Choice is an Illusion.
• Dominion of Emotions over Logic and Reason.
• Purpose of Purpose and a different viewpoint of Power.

Causality is the only constant in this universe #

This view is partly true because causality is the only proof of existence of flow of time and connects different objects and events in this universe. But the existence of objects and evens cannot be neglected, so they must also be accounted for. Events can be called as derivable from causality and objects in place but objects are equally fundamental as causality. Here objects include God, soul and the matter. Causality is a mapping relation between objects and the collective events which defines what w call the source and destination. So, causality is necessary if we are to define destiny.

Choice is an Illusion #

The worldview of Merovingian represents that of a daivavadi meaning a person who believes only in destiny and absence of freewill. In fact a scene between Morpheus and Mr. Anderson reveals that Mr. Anderson is a karmavadi or a person who believes only in freewill and denies the existence of destiny. If choice is illusion, it implies that our choices doesn’t affect any outcome of events. All events are weaved in a causality and there is only one author for a cause since our choices doesn’t count!! So, Merovingian is contradicting himself in his views when he says he wants to take a piss as he drank too much wine. So much for his philosophy that he hasn’t understood it completely. He blames causality for his urge to piss rather than his choice of drinking wine limitlessly knowing well its consequences. In fact, in the next movie he speaks about the view of an event as coincidence and consequence and both signifies something related to worldview. This confusion of free will vs destiny exists among philosophers for centuries so our poor Merovingian’s ignorance can be excused.

This confusion exists because we fail to see the free will and destiny existing in different planes and both act combined to produce events and interactions of this world as we see it. For example, we have learnt that god and spirit are same in quality but different in quantity. The basis is different. Similarly, destiny and free will are contestants if different basis working together. Like x axis and y axis components which are independent and the z axis is governed by a dependent relation of x and y values. I always give the following example to clarify the mutual existence of determinism and free will.

The Level is designed by he developer, but the ability to choose the mushroom or being killed by the enemies is our choice.

The levels of Super Mario is designed by the Developer hence predestined, but the way we play it, for example the choice of ours to power up using mushroom, collecting coins etc is upto us. The developer is not in control of it, only level design is his forte. This ability to choose is free will. In fact we can use some bypass routes to change the appearance of next level but the level design is fixed.

events = f(choice, destiny)

This confusion also exists because many philosophers think we are just made of matter and life is an emergent phenomena of complex chemical interactions. So, the free will is naturally ruled out of the discussion as we know all the laws of how these interactions work(roughly), so leading us to predict our future activities. Only the lack of extensive compuattion capabilities is stopping us from doing so. So, in theory, we can use standard model of particle physics to predict who will be the president of United States in the next election!!

If we accept the existence of soul different from matter, all blocks fit nicely. Here we claim the existence of soul is fundamental and different from the matter we observe.

He also says we are slaves of causality. It is to do with the consequences of choices. We are masters of our choices always, but consequences are not for us to control. For example, we talk a lot about free speech. We are free to speak nonsense but we cant stop the significant other from being hurt by such speech. We can stop it only if we don’t speak which is the choice we choose to make. Like the Oracle says, we all have choices to make. So, choose wisely.

Dominion of Emotions over Logic and Reason #

This happens to most of us because we are spirit soul and the nature of spirit soul is to be blissful. So, we tend to lean towards emotions in every opportunity. Sometimes, logic and reason itself is emotional for many, as they enjoy exploring startling insights. But, in general we are choosing to be slaves of the mind, senses ans sense objects. This is the scenario of the woman as demonstrated and explained by Merovingian to the trio.

In fact, Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that the intelligence is bewildered when lust/anger predominates a person. It is the design of this world and we choose to live here. We choose the defaults here. But we are not aware of the fact that we can modify them to beat out the best out of the bad bargain. We are not aware because we don’t know the purpose(more on this in next section).

Purpose of Purpose and a different viewpoint of Power #

Again, Merovingian makes a startling claim of stating ‘Why’ as source of power. It is quite true that without resolving the purpose we lose the real goal. Purpose serves as the compass to help us navigate through intricate events of life successfully(What does success mean? Will discuss later in thai article.) in this myriad of complex structural functioning of the world. We are prone to get lost if we don’t have purpose to do something. In fact we need a resolute purpose to set a goal. Purpose in itself is not a compass, goal is a compass. Purpose helps us choose a proper compass for the voyage.

So, it is quite right that if we know why things are happening the way they happen, we have the choice of altering it, fixing it, enhancing it manifest before us. If the ‘Why’ element is missing, this choice is simply hidden from us, making us powerless.

Purpose is the root of many events in this world. Merovingian says we are powerless because we don’t know it, and knowing it will help us navigate the jungle without deviating it. In fact, he goes to differentiate between the program and the mind in terms of this ability. I think Merovingian claims that the act of knowing WHY is just a way to show dominance over others. But it is not about dominance rather it is escaping the clutches of illusion of matrix life.

What is Success(optional) #

Many times we see the recognized figures/people stating that they are not happy after achieving great stuff. Why? Aren’t they successful? Probably not because this is the standard case of irresolute purpose behind that corresponding achievement which happened due to the utilization of the wrong compass. If purpose is not right, we don’t set right goals, leading to efforts spent in wrong direction, again leading to disappointment. Phew, a huge causal chain.

Causal Chain of Actions

This might sound utilitarian because most of these are defining features of the same. But we are not talking utilitarianism here. We only talk about purpose of purpose in quite detail here.

Conclusion #

Quite a small scene but a lot of lessons to learn from. The problem behind accepting choice, determinism, emotional dominance, purpose of purpose etc. Let me know your thoughts in comments about what I missed, where I went wrong etc. Happy movies and Happy Learning.