The Architect Explains the Perfect Brainwashing Mechanism

As The Architect in Matrix Reloaded so eloquently explains to us:

Choice is simultaneously both the highest form of thought control and the greatest weakness in any thought control system.

Nothing is better at influencing our thoughts and emotions better than the ideas we have consented to.

What we resist, we know we don’t want. But when we agree with something, when we make a conscious decision to accept a condition in our lives, we are essentially giving it permission to affect us.

This is the basic premise of why the Matrix works.

As the Architect elaborates, we learn that the problem of getting humans to accept the virtual reality of the matrix and live comfortably in its confines was solved by getting humans to tacitly agree to its implementation.

He thusly arrived at “a solution whereby nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level.”

This .1% failure rate within the system of the matrix is what lead to the creation of Zion, the last human city on Earth.

The movie audience is lead to believe that the machines wish the free humans to be completely eradicated forever, as they are essentially the only threat to complete machine dominance on earth.

But according to the Architect, Zion actually needs to exist — so that the rest of the population will remain willingly enslaved. He even tells Neo that upon Neo’s willingly going back to “the Source” and allowing the destruction of Zion, he will be allowed to choose 23 individuals with which to start a new Zion.

Implying that one of the ultimate “enemies of humanity”, the father of the matrix, actually recognizes the need of a place for all the dissenters of the program to gather.

This is a beautiful illustration of a societal engineering technique called “controlled opposition”.

It is also a depiction of the problem of choice, and how consent, even if given at a near unconscious level, is a necessary prerequisite to enslavement.