Another quiz the Empress is going to want to take

Posted on July 24, 2002 in Quizzes

When it comes to being mysterious, that’s what you do best. You like to leave others puzzled and speak in riddles. You’re not out there for the fame and fortune, you’re just being yourself, doing what you do best. You’re strong and courageous, and you’re always the leader of the pack. You’re skillful; people respect you, and you respect people.

You know, this is one of those really ugly quizzes. One of the questions asked how I would like to kill someone. I looked for my answer which was “I really don’t think I’d want to kill anyone at all” but it wasn’t there. Lots of rampage in this particular quiz. People who write these things will say that nonviolence doesn’t work, but I live nonviolence every day of my life. When they give me the wrong thing in the restaurant, I don’t grab the waitress by the collar, give her a shake, and tell her that I wanted the fish, not the steak. A polite word goes a long ways. But there’s a whole cult out there that worships violence. At the root of films like The Matrix is the frustration of the viewer. We all want to fight our boss, our tax collector, the local police, maybe even the postman at times. But films like The Matrix seem to pose a trap: “Come be violent, it says. Use this as your form of dissent. (And when you do, we’ll bust your ass and throw you in jail! Another dissident handled.)” I suppose most people see it as fantasy and can live putting Neo and his adventures in a place in the brain that does not direct actions. It’s the five to ten percent I worry about, though, the students who stock up on bullets and then go shoot up the school one fine day. They seem to think that they can live The Matrix.

By giving us fantasy worlds where the only nonviolent alternative is to submit to horror and ennui, Hollywood takes us one step closer to Somalia.