Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 74
cult to the Book of Revelation. To quote Adela Yarbro Collins, "The dualist division of
humanity in the Apocalypse is a failure in love. [...]One's enemies, including large
numbers of unknown people with whom one supposes oneself to be in disagreement, are
given a simple label, associated with demonic beings, and thus denied their full humanity"
(170). After the events of 9/11 this assessment rings more true than ever:
In-group morality [in Al Qaeda] was emphasized there is no moral obligation to those
outside the Ummah, or indeed to other Muslims outside the group. [...]Secularists and
disbelievers are not even considered living. Mahmud Abouhalima, involved in the first World
Trade Center bombing, described non-religious individuals as moving ―dead bodies‖
(Christopher M. Centner).
Neo and Trinity have a stone-faced attitude toward murdering innocent security men in The
Matrix. They kill as if they were part of an action cartoon with no emotion, no regret, no
sense that (and this might have been somewhat mitigating) this murder is a horrible
necessity. Trinity especially tends to move like a machine as she shoots people at
pointblank range, puts knives in their foreheads and mutilates men who are convinced they
are fighting dangerous terrorists the way real-life police officers would risk their lives to
protect innocent civilians from... Al Qaeda! In The Matrix Reloaded the same approach to
murdering unknowing security people is observed. After captain Niobe attacks and
neutralizes a couple of policemen, her head shoots up in a jerky motion as if to stress the
idea of a superhero's job well-done. Equally disturbing is the way in which a power plant
is blown up right in the middle of a city in The Matrix Reloaded the implicit countless
civilian victims within the explosion radius are discounted by the film as not even worth
thinking about.
Christopher M. Centner's above-cited reference to "in-group morality," which amounts to
the willingness to "trash" anyone in the out-group, is a position typical of aggressive cults
and terrorist organizations with cult-like elements. This can be linked to Lawrence
Kohlberg's discussion of moral development stages across cultures. Kohlberg outlines six
stages through which a human being can progress in his or her conception of what is right
and wrong. The first two stages are pre-social in that they make the creation of stable
social units impossible and characterize mainly young children or psychopaths. Thus, stage
one is about the simple avoidance of punishment while stage two is the conception of other
people only in terms of what they can give in exchange for something (Lawrence Kohlberg:
17). It is only with stage three that a rudimentary social structure can emerge — on the
basis of in-group and out-group morality. The in-group tends to be a smaller interest
group, like a tribe, where justice is defined in terms of approval from the in-group. Such a
position makes the creation of larger social structures problematic because the members of
the in-group identify with a narrow range of goals rather than a broad social system that
incorporates many interest groups or "tribes." (cf. Lawrence Kohlberg, p. 18-21)
The members of Morpheus's rebel group appear to function at the level of Lawrence
Kohlberg's third stage, and in this connection the parallels with cultic thinking appear very
prominent. Since this morality violates that of mainstream society and age-old traditions,
cults tend to focus on the figure of a charismatic leader in order to bolster their shaky
ethical systems. In fact this goes back to medieval millenarian sects that normally
centered around a prophet-like person or propheta (Cohn 43). Such a leader declared all
conventional norms invalid and sanctioned violence meant to usher in the Millennium.
Modern cultic leaders function the same way, e.g., Jim Jones and David Koresh claimed
divine status and absolute trust as well as the absolute right to rule the in-group as they
saw fit (cf. David G. Bromley and Edward D. Silver 44: 58).
In The Matrix Morpheus is undoubtedly a prophet-like leader modeled on John the Baptist
(see above). His superhuman nature is suggested in a scene from The Matrix Reloaded
cult to the Book of Revelation. To quote Adela Yarbro Collins, "The dualist division of
humanity in the Apocalypse is a failure in love. [...]One's enemies, including large
numbers of unknown people with whom one supposes oneself to be in disagreement, are
given a simple label, associated with demonic beings, and thus denied their full humanity"
(170). After the events of 9/11 this assessment rings more true than ever:
In-group morality [in Al Qaeda] was emphasized there is no moral obligation to those
outside the Ummah, or indeed to other Muslims outside the group. [...]Secularists and
disbelievers are not even considered living. Mahmud Abouhalima, involved in the first World
Trade Center bombing, described non-religious individuals as moving ―dead bodies‖
(Christopher M. Centner).
Neo and Trinity have a stone-faced attitude toward murdering innocent security men in The
Matrix. They kill as if they were part of an action cartoon with no emotion, no regret, no
sense that (and this might have been somewhat mitigating) this murder is a horrible
necessity. Trinity especially tends to move like a machine as she shoots people at
pointblank range, puts knives in their foreheads and mutilates men who are convinced they
are fighting dangerous terrorists the way real-life police officers would risk their lives to
protect innocent civilians from... Al Qaeda! In The Matrix Reloaded the same approach to
murdering unknowing security people is observed. After captain Niobe attacks and
neutralizes a couple of policemen, her head shoots up in a jerky motion as if to stress the
idea of a superhero's job well-done. Equally disturbing is the way in which a power plant
is blown up right in the middle of a city in The Matrix Reloaded the implicit countless
civilian victims within the explosion radius are discounted by the film as not even worth
thinking about.
Christopher M. Centner's above-cited reference to "in-group morality," which amounts to
the willingness to "trash" anyone in the out-group, is a position typical of aggressive cults
and terrorist organizations with cult-like elements. This can be linked to Lawrence
Kohlberg's discussion of moral development stages across cultures. Kohlberg outlines six
stages through which a human being can progress in his or her conception of what is right
and wrong. The first two stages are pre-social in that they make the creation of stable
social units impossible and characterize mainly young children or psychopaths. Thus, stage
one is about the simple avoidance of punishment while stage two is the conception of other
people only in terms of what they can give in exchange for something (Lawrence Kohlberg:
17). It is only with stage three that a rudimentary social structure can emerge — on the
basis of in-group and out-group morality. The in-group tends to be a smaller interest
group, like a tribe, where justice is defined in terms of approval from the in-group. Such a
position makes the creation of larger social structures problematic because the members of
the in-group identify with a narrow range of goals rather than a broad social system that
incorporates many interest groups or "tribes." (cf. Lawrence Kohlberg, p. 18-21)
The members of Morpheus's rebel group appear to function at the level of Lawrence
Kohlberg's third stage, and in this connection the parallels with cultic thinking appear very
prominent. Since this morality violates that of mainstream society and age-old traditions,
cults tend to focus on the figure of a charismatic leader in order to bolster their shaky
ethical systems. In fact this goes back to medieval millenarian sects that normally
centered around a prophet-like person or propheta (Cohn 43). Such a leader declared all
conventional norms invalid and sanctioned violence meant to usher in the Millennium.
Modern cultic leaders function the same way, e.g., Jim Jones and David Koresh claimed
divine status and absolute trust as well as the absolute right to rule the in-group as they
saw fit (cf. David G. Bromley and Edward D. Silver 44: 58).
In The Matrix Morpheus is undoubtedly a prophet-like leader modeled on John the Baptist
(see above). His superhuman nature is suggested in a scene from The Matrix Reloaded
