There has been a long-term (multigenerational) Establishment-backed strategy of convincing 'the masses' (i.e. as many people as possible) that this world is some kind of simulation, hologram, a un-rooted surface, virtual world, a fake - the Matrix.
This goes with the idea that there is no truth - or that the truth is inaccessible to the human senses, mind and thinking; and the only dangerous people are those who believe there is a truth and that they can know it.
There is a dominant ethic which has it that agnosticism is the highest virtue; that not knowing and knowing that one does not know, is the only really valid basis for life; that doubt is a higher state that knowing -- and, again, that the only really dangerous people are those who decide, take responsibility for their decisions, and act upon them.
("Fundamentalists" - in other words, to use the jargon.)
Of course it can with equal truth be shown that the Establishment also desire that the masses should believe absolutely and do obediently... whatever the Establishment are telling them, today.
And that this "today's truth" and today's "must-do morality" are absolute and permanently valid - because the fact they differ from last year, and may be reversed next week - does not affect the overwhelming factuality and ethical imperative of the present moment.
This is our world.
But such a world, in its own reality - perfectly complements the prevalent, "living in a simulation'', know-nothing agnosticism.
As soon as any subject or 'issue' has been raised, there can be no knowledge vacuum - raising the subject (and the frame in-which it is raised) itself intrinsically assumes prior knowledge and values. Thought has content, and content assumes its own external reality and conceptual interpretation. Neutrality is incoherent because concepts always include values.
Hence what is being asked of the masses (non-judgment, eternal doubt) is strictly impossible: therefore it does not happen.
And that is why the Matrix says one thing ("believe nothing!"), but people do the opposite (i.e. believe everything the Matrix says, currently) - and that is exactly what the Matrix intends! The Matrix-masses combine maximum cynicism, and total obedience!
The Matrix is experientially the world we live-in; and we also are told - by the Matrix itself; sometimes explicitly, and in a thousand indirect ways - as well as in hundreds of analogical and hypothetical ways (by 'fictions' in TV, movies, novels...) - that the Matrix is the world we live-in.
But why, how, did this Matrix happen?
Well, there can be no 'because' in agnostic Matrix world; therefore the Matrix Just Happened - just goes-on happening, under its own internal logic - aiming... nowhere in particular; because a Matrix can have no purpose.
Thus, a further very popular, heavily propagandized back-up theory is that Matrix-manipulators do not exist because... stuff just happens due to 'emergence', the market, chaos-theory, forces and laws, historical cycles, progression or degenerations, and so forth.
There is no covert purpose, no hidden hand, no intent of evil...
Ultimately "because" randomness.
The only permissible and high-brow spirituality is oneness. This claim labels the Matrix as a this-world, temporary - because Time-bound, fake and illusory reality - As contrasted with a claimed knowledge derived from standing outside the Matrix, in an ultimate, eternal, changeless, unity.
Oneness spirituality - supposedly derived from Hinduism, Buddhism and the Mystic East - feeds this agnostic Matrix view of reality, because every-thing is actually the same thing, good and evil are illusions, as are truth and lies, innocence or blame.
For oneness; this life is all illusion and no truth; the enlightened Man realizes that he knows nothing; his thoughts are deceptions, his discernments are just ego; his self is actually not a self but just a minuscule part of the one - our hope should be that our self should cease to be differentiated from that one - then illusion will fall away - including the illusion of our own suffering...
Oneness says: cheer up! You are not really miserable - because you are too brief, insignificant and deluded for "your" "misery" to mean anything!
So much for the negatives...
Then we must ask:
If Not; Then What?
If not the agnostic Matrix - what else is possible, or better?
We can only legitimately recognize the evil of the Matrix from some other place that is Not a part of the Matrix world; just as we can only recognize agnosticism from having-made decisions about what assumptions are correct.
Indeed, the whole Matrix operates - all the time - by creating and dissolving temporary and Matrix-expedient rules, truths, values, assumptions - and everything else positive.
Or else - there is nothing, nihil, nihil-ism, and ultimate despair.
From where we are here-and-now; it does not work to wall-off some part of the Matrix, in hope that it will then operate on different lines.
The Matrix covered the world in 2020, for all to see; and has neither been repented nor repudiated anywhere - not even in its essentials, let alone wholly. No nation has escaped the Matrix; no nation has clearly said they even want to escape: no nation, nor even any institution of size and power enough to be able to do it.
Meanwhile here we are, you and me.
We surely can't wait for 'other people' - whether a nation, a region, a locality, a church - to create a real world that we can inhabit.
Life goes on - and must be lived with some purpose, or else it will be as futile as the oneness-Matrixites tell us!
Death approaches...
Therefore; we must find reality and truth for ourselves; starting from what we know we know; and ignoring the secondary and separate question of whether we can convince others, whether we can create a community of like-minded others...
Ignoring; because we very probably cannot and will-not be able to share our truths - the world being what it is.
And this is where Christian faith comes in.
And it must be Christian faith.
Because only the Christian God is creator, good, and our loving Father - so can be depended-upon and able to make possible whatever is necessary for our salvation, and to make our continued mortal life worthwhile from an eternal perspective - and only Jesus can guarantee that eternity to those who genuinely want it.
The Matrix is everywhere and very powerful. But we can nonetheless, on our own, you and me; confidently defy the vast fake world of the Matrix; can discern and think our way to a sufficiently-solid basis of correct information, positive values, and therefore true knowledge.
The alternative?
Well, living in the agnostic Matrix is worse than living in the Matrix of the movies - because, unlike there, the masses of the world in 2023 know that they live in a fake reality. The masses know this because, unlike in the movie, the Establishment who operate the Matrix tell people they are living in the Matrix; tell them over and again!
And that is the other crucial difference between the movie and this life. In the movie, the masses are being exploited as sources of energy; therefore it is better they are kept in ignorance.
But here and now, in this world, the purpose of the Matrix is damnation of Men's souls. It is therefore valuable that the masses inhabit the Matrix, and are aware of the fact - thus Men may be induced to despair.
And despair is the surest of all paths to damnation.
When men inhabit the Matrix, and when they also know that the Matrix is what they inhabit - they are consenting to the Matrix.
And when the Matrix is evil by intent and design; then Men are consenting to evil.
This is what the Matrix manipulators need to happen. Need, because of the work of Jesus Christ means that it is only when Men consent to evil that they will refuse salvation and are damned.
(Jesus came to save sinners, and sinning is no bar to salvation - so long as sin is acknowledged as such; and the Man desires the resurrection offered by Christ.)
This is, ultimately, why the Establishment make sure that We know what They are doing to Us; and then try to ensure that We accept it - accept, that is, that what-They-do is for-the-best.