Ayushman Jamwal
In The Matrix Revolutions, the power crazed Agent Smith is about to end the Prophet Neo’s life, but remains puzzled as to why his adversary keeps fighting. After being beaten repeatedly, with no help in sight, Neo struggles to stay on his feet to defend the last remnants of humanity against the Empire of Machines. As he falls to the ground close to death, Agent Smith, an enforcer of the machine world, can’t fathom Neo’s resolve. He can snuff out his life with a click of his fingers, but the poor logic of Neo’s perseverance is beyond his understanding and infuriating. He demands the Prophet explain why he doesn’t give up, what drives him to fight the chaos he has rained upon him. Agent Smith asks if it is truth, love, freedom or peace, but mocks them as insipid vagaries. Neo still struggles to his feet and Agent Smith screams, ‘Why do you persist?’. A dying Neo only replies, ‘I choose too’.
Life is unforgiving chaos and only humanity holds the powerful fortitude to master it. The world can deliver punishing experiences through calamity, ill-will, apathy and indifference, launching a direct assault on goodwill, community, love, hope and self-esteem, filling people with fear and doubt. The cruelty of fate fills us all with anger, it is the lack of control and helplessness which fuels the disdain for who we are and the people and institutions around us, but it also presents clear choices – pity or perseverance.
Pitying oneself is destructive, a slow walk to slow decay and death, unremembered and undone, a fearful capitulation to life’s imperfect storms. Perseverance on the other hand is the most powerful revenge against life, a will to master and overcome the chaos that sweeps our existence. Taking back from life entails how much you get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done, that’s how enlightenment is attained.
All the way from Jesus to Batman, humanity’s drive to persist has created powerful archetypes to sustain our imaginations and belief in that essential quality. Jesus and other religious icons have been at the helm of philosophical empires of hope for centuries, representing and emboldening the resolve to rise above chaos, empowering themselves with the physical and emotional scars of their lives. In the modern, urbanised and increasingly areligious world, Batman is a natural evolution of that figure, someone who refuses to succumb to life’s devastating blows, a victim of random violence who forges himself into a symbol against organised crime, the corruption of social institutions and the apathy of citizens.
In Corinthians, it says “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” Centuries later Batman strives to endure his loss, refusing to descend into despair when he says, “All men have limits. They learn what they are and learn not to exceed them. I ignore mine.”
Human will is no more than a chapel on the edge of hell. The stronger we hold on to our faith in ourselves and others, the longer we keep the abyss at bay. This chapel is constantly under siege, slowly chipped at, looking stained, ragged and scarred over time, yet its endurance, its drive to keep standing, unite and grow makes it eternal, carving a small, fortified empire, an existence serving as the greatest revenge against the forces of despair. Build your own personal chapels, and no matter what the world throws at you, show it what you’re made of.
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