On Causality
And this from the Matrix Reloaded (the best scene and dialogue of the film by far):
Merovingian: You see, there is only one constant, one universal, it 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 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. 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 social power, without it you are powerless.
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November 8th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
“I turn a corner”, I offered, “just as someone ahead of me turns the next corner. I can’t see what that person looks like. All I can make out is a flash of white coattails. But the whiteness of the coattail is indelibly etched in my consciousness. Ever get that feeling?”
“I suppose so.”
“Well, that’s the feeling I get from your ears.”
Again we ate in silence. I poured wine for her, then for myself.
“It’s not the scene that comes into your head,” she asked, “but the feeling, right?”
“Right.”
“Ever have that feeling before?”
I gave it some thought, then shook my head. “No, I guess not.”
“Which means it’s all on account of my ears.”
“I could not swear to it. There’s no way I could be that sure. I’ve never heard of the shape of someone’s ears arousing anyone this way.”
“I know someone who sneezed every time he say Farah Fawcett’s nose. There’s a big psychological element to sneezing, you know. Once cause and effect and effect link up, there’s no escape.”
Haruki Murakami “A wild Sheep Chase”