The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us; even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. [...]

Like everyone else, you were born into bondage; born into a prison that you cannot smell, or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.

Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Remember, all I'm offering is the truth; nothing more.

-Morpheus

What if humanity became extinct this second, leaving its creations behind? What if travelers from a distant planet arrived on Earth hours later? What conclusions would these adventurers derive from what they found?

Being that money is one the most prevalent of humankind's inventions, these explorers would probably deduce people required cash in order to survive. Perhaps it was necessary for humans to eat or inhale these strips of fabric to stay alive.

Of course, nothing is further from the truth. Humans most definitely can't ingest money, should they be starving. As far as breathing in these swatches of material - if we're suffocating - you're more likely to be thrilled at the thought of waiting in line at the DMV.

In fact, since there's an overabundance of food on Earth, and more than a billion people starving to death - because they don't have the cash to buy said sustenance - it seems money would be the least common artifact in a rational society. Hence, one can deduce the current version of humanity is illogical, and suicidal. Why else would it make the one thing that's bringing about its demise, one of the most widespread objects in civilization?

What if Earth is a prison planet? Some of the most successful penitentiaries - when it comes to keeping prisoners confined - are the most remote. Alcatraz and Devil's Island were effective, due to isolation from the majority of the populace.

What if we step back and view Earth from a Universal angle? Even in the context of the Milky Way, this planet seems in the boondocks; distant from what would likely be the most inhabited portions of this cosmos.

Thus, if Earth is a prison planet, would that make us prisoners; unable to leap into the cosmic ocean with our primitive lifeboats - spaceships - and drift to those highly populated areas, and hence salvation? Perhaps. The answer to that query seems to depend on who put us here, and why. After all, not only do prisoners reside in a prison, but so too guards and wardens.

What if we've been placed on Earth not to be punished, but to keep those who are being punished from escaping? What if felons of this Universe were on this planet, as we speak, and we were keeping them from absconding? The question arises as to how we wouldn't realize these prisoners were among us.

Again, take a step back and view the current human condition.

There are a handful of people - in comparison to the total populace - who are prospering, while the rest of us struggle to stay alive. One can suggest these few are simply more adept. When you consider their success comes at the expense of those who are toiling against extermination, though, proficiency isn't part of the equation. At this point, these prosperous folk thrive thanks to pain and suffering of the masses.

Who are these entities flourishing from the agony of the rest of us? Obviously, it's the ultra-monetarily affluent of humanity.

Designer Hugo Boss produced the standard Nazi uniform for Third Reich soldiers during World War II. Today, his corporation continues to reap benefits; its garments beloved, whether worn by those sending the emaciated to gas chambers, or high school students suppressing boners at formal dances.

And Hugo Boss is one of a myriad of companies, as long as there's a monetary system, eager to exploit anyone, in order to acquire more cash - swatches of fabric, as previously proven, inherently useless to humans. Yet, a tool many are willing to use for their own benefit, whether or not others suffer as a result.

What of Coca-Cola producing Fanta specifically for Nazi troops, parched after blowing fist-sized holes through skulls of concentration camp prisoners? Is that different than U.S. soldiers downing ice cold Cokes, whilst lobbing mortars into apartment buildings in downtown Baghdad?

In short, millionaires and billionaires derive rewards at the ultimate cost to the innocent. Because what these deranged entities are collecting - when reduced to fundamentals - is meaningless to humans, that makes them psychopaths. How are they any different than those on the television show Hoarders, who crazily compile an overabundance of useless objects?

Where's the dissimilarity between keeping a million pointless strips of fabric in your coffers, and a million used tampons in your linen closet? At least the tampons, at one point, had a legitimate use. In the words of comedian Lee Camp:

You don't respect anyone else who collects a billion or a million of something. [...]

If you find out someone's got a million shoes, you're like, "What the fuck's the matter with you?!" So why do we respect people with a million pieces of paper with Alexander Hamilton's fugly mug on ['em]?

It's into this fucked-up paradigm - the deep end of the shit pool, if you will - we've all been launched.

As if the above weren't enough to contend with, most people around you have chosen to take the blue pill, while you've taken the red. Attempt to show them the truth, and be besieged by rabid masses the way Winston Smith was in the movie 1984.