Are We Living In The Matrix??

Do you ever have a time when you think something is REALLY obvious to you and yet others around you seem to be oblivious? Like in the movie "The Matrix" where all these people are really asleep and hooked up to machines while they go about their perfect little lives, believing that everything is as it seems and yet for a lucky (or unlucky) few, they are awake and open to a whole different reality and yet they are not able to wake others out of their dream state reality.
In my life this kind of experience seems to occur around thoughtfulness and helping out others. For me, and perhaps this is a nature V's nurture argument, but I was brought up in a household that always encouraged helping others, both my brother and I and our parents were great friends with all the neighbours and often helped out with lifts for kids, helping each other build garages, put up a swimming pool etc. There was always 'extras' over for Christmas lunch - anyone the didn't have family or were at a loose end, and there has always been a general sense of if you can see something that needs doing or someone that needs help then you step in and offer. To me this seems an obvious transaction - someone needs something that I can help with or provide so quite simply why would I not give to them?
Another interesting behaviour that makes me feel like we are living in the matrix is the way that many people make choices to stay 'stuck' in a place that they are apparently not happy - as they state their unhappiness with their situation as often as possible, and yet when solutions or options are offered they simply shut down or say things like 'yeah, I could do that' and then keep going on the exact same, apparently unhappy, path hmmmm.....
I certainly don't think that I have always been this open or self-aware, as I look back to younger days I definitely realise the selfishness of youth, I certainly didn't realise at the time, nor was I purposefully ignoring the needs of others, I just simply didn't notice. A great turning point in my life when I was quite young (around 21 I think) was when I decided to leave the place that I had started my working life (back then it was a hair salon). I had spent 4 years doing my apprenticeship and another 2 years beyond that under the constant torment of my well and truly evil and sadistic boss. A man that found great amusement in bringing apprentices to tears one after another almost every day. Anyway once I decided to leave and work at another salon I realised that I didn't have to stay in a place that I was not happy. That I had power and I had choices and I was able to make changes in my life for the better. Well the day I left that salon I vowed to never EVER stay in a job that I was not happy in and in over 20 years, and many different career paths, I haven't and that has been a metaphor for a lot of my life.
There are definitely days that I wish I was still living within 'the matrix', oblivious to the deeper callings of my life's path and the choices that I have to make that are sometimes difficult and painful, but once I became 'awake' I could not ignore possibilities and opportunities for change and personal growth. There is also the realisation that we are each on our own path of discovery and that none of us a better than another but rather just in a different place in our personal and joint evolution and we have to work really hard to respect and not judge where another is on their part of the journey. Nor can we 'awaken' anyone else or drag or carry them to see the light. A big part of my current growth is realising that just because someone doesn't see things the way I do, or act in a way that I would, does not make them wrong, or bad, but simply in a different place on their journey and I guess just being 'them' in a way that is different to 'me' and isn't respecting that one of the greatest lessons we learn......