Why do we get up?

At the end of the movie, Matrix Revolutions, Agent Smith stands above a beaten Neo and wonders aloud why his adversary continues to get up just to be beaten down:

Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more that your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?

I think it's a question that we all try to answer and, at times, struggle with. Why do we get up? When we've experienced a setback, a major health issue, a catastrophic loss, what is it that makes up get up? What is it that makes us push through?

Referees in professional fights are there not just to enforce the rules, but also to protect the fighters from themselves. Many boxers and mixed martial artists don't know enough to give up even when it's apparent that they can't win. It's at that point that the referee steps in and stops the fight. For some reason, the fighters just keep bouncing back up no matter how much they've been beaten. Bloodied, battered, and bruised, they attempt to get to their feet with all their might. Why?

Do we even know why we get up? Is it just instinct? Is it inertia? Maybe we get up because we've done it before and don't realize that staying down is an actual option. Do we just pop back up automatically without thought? Is it a conscious decision?

If it is a conscious decision, what is the rationale? Do you believe that things will be better if you get up again? What leads you to that decision when you know, from past experience, just how wrong things can go? And if this isn't the first time you've gotten back up, why doesn't the thought of getting knocked down again stop you?

Of course, not everyone gets up after being knocked down. We label these people as having psychological disorders because it is considered "normal" to get up when you're knocked down. If someone can't do this, they're seen as deficient in some way. There's even a theory called learned helplessness that seeks to explain why people (and animals) stop trying to improve their situation after they've failed. Not everyone falls into this category, however.

What about 13 year old Bethany Hamilton whose arm was torn off by a shark while surfing? That girl was back in the water as soon as she could be. Cleary, she decided to get back up. Not only did she get back up, but she went right back to the thing that knocked her down in the first place. This may seem like an extreme example, but there are many, many more stories like this.

So do we know why we get up? Do we do it out of fear of staying down? Or maybe it's because we'll be letting someone else down by giving up, a family, a lover, a friend? Is it a sense of responsibility to someone or something that ultimately makes us get back up? We're constantly being encouraged by our leaders to never give up. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.:

If you can't fly, then run.
If you can't run, then walk.
If you can't walk, then crawl.
But whatever you do, keep moving.

The idea of perseverance seems to be one of the most basic precepts of humanity. Maybe it's our DNA that makes us feel like we can't give up. Maybe it's part of our soul that drives us towards something more. Or maybe it's fear. If you're afraid of being down, then your only choice is to get up. Maybe you get up because you have hope, and that alone is a good enough reason.

I don't have the answer to this question, and I suspect that it's different for everyone. Ultimately, perhaps the reason why we get up is summed up in Neo's response to Agent Smith's question: "Because I choose to."

• April 04, 2008 12:04 AM