Poll: Truth or Ignorance?

[Eddi]

A Matrix inspired thread

So… Morpheus comes into your house, makes himself at home, and then tells you:



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.

Question: Do you chose the blue pill or the red pill? (Don’t be clever, choosing no pill is not an option…) and remember - when making the choice you do not know about The Matrix because you haven't seen the films

In fact: Forget The Matrix and consider this a general thought experiment in which you must chose between knowing a hidden and potentially unsettling truth about reality (that changes everything), or carrying on oblivious in the same old world, with no clue about the true nature of things.

For me:

I always thought I’d chose the red pill

I valued knowledge over all else

I wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes of reality

See what's behind closed doors

Peek under the veil of ignorance

But if you asked me now I’d chose the blue pill

I see it as a matter of quality of life, of happiness

I now value comfort and security over all else

I don’t want to go down any rabbit holes

Quite simply: I don’t want to know

I’ll chose blissful ignorance...

So yeah, Morpheus can keep his red pill, I’ll pop the blue one and wake up in my bed and believe whatever I want to believe, thank you very much, humankind will just have to free itself from The Matrix without me

 

[SalixIncendium]

I chose the red pill.

 

[ChristineM]

I like red

 

[Rival]

Red.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I sold my soul for all the knowledge I can soak up, so in some ways I already did take a red pill (like when I realized I only believed in any sort of personal deities or afterlife as a comfort, and ceased belief with nothing more than that). I also haven't had the luxury of many of the illusions most get to live with, so full dosed red pill it is.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Red,,,never been comfortable having to simply accept dogma without being allowed to ask questions. I was a very irritating child, I've no doubt.

And comfort is over-rated, in my view. It can get tedious, without excitement, without learning new things.

Gimme the red, and let the games begin!

 

[icehorse]

I've tried some crazy s#it and made some massive mistakes. Wouldn't trade 'em for a safer path.

 

[Polymath257]

Red

 

[Secret Chief]

I'd take both.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

I do not find the truth behind everything unsettling at all. Chose the red pill long ago--no regrets whatsoever. Besides, in this plane of duality, everything is formed as a two-sided coin; you choose the pleasures, you sign up for the miseries, as well. Guaranteed. Where's your bliss then? All you have left is the ignorance. Phooey on that.

 

[Quintessence]

I think the scenario relies on overly-simplistic philosophy that doesn't reflect what it means to be human or how humans are capable of processing information. Humans are storytellers that relate their experiences to their own limited points of view. There's no way of changing that without fundamentally altering one's nature to be something other than human and instead something a lot closer to a hive-mind collective organism or an omnimax entity. The so-called "truth" is just another box to think inside. Another box that someone else wants to push onto you because reasons.

 

[February-Saturday]

I'm a Gnostic, which is one of the main inspirations behind the Matrix.

Most people do not want to take the red pill. The red pill doesn't represent truth over ignorance. It represents a knowledge that can't be unlearned that takes you from a place of comfort into the powerless reality of the world. I have seen many people who say they would take the red pill that are incredibly dogmatic and tethered to their life or worldview, believing that the "red pill" is merely a metaphor for the truth they already have.

It is not. It's a metaphor for powerlessness. Knowledge comes with it, yes, but it comes at probably the steepest price imaginable and the knowledge itself is not necessarily useful or pertinent to your life to begin with. How many people are content to live in the Matrix or return to stay in the simulation? That's where their life is.

The gravity of the choice gets lost on people. It's not about science. It's not about learning what's true rather than believing a comfortable lie. Of course most people are going to choose to know truth when faced with that question, even if they might regret making it afterwards or deny what they learn. That's not the choice being made here.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

I'm a Gnostic, which is one of the main inspirations behind the Matrix.

Most people do not want to take the red pill. The red pill doesn't represent truth over ignorance. It represents a knowledge that can't be unlearned that takes you from a place of comfort into the powerless reality of the world. I have seen many people who say they would take the red pill that are incredibly dogmatic and tethered to their life or worldview, believing that the "red pill" is merely a metaphor for the truth they already have.

It is not. It's a metaphor for powerlessness. Knowledge comes with it, yes, but it comes at probably the steepest price imaginable and the knowledge itself is not necessarily useful or pertinent to your life to begin with. How many people are content to live in the Matrix or return to stay in the simulation? That's where their life is.

The gravity of the choice gets lost on people. It's not about science. It's not about learning what's true rather than believing a comfortable lie. Of course most people are going to choose to know truth when faced with that question, even if they might regret making it afterwards or deny what they learn. That's not the choice being made here.

Oh, perhaps then I have answered ignorantly. Never having seen The Matrix, I thought taking the red pill in the OP's poll represented something else, not "powerless reality of the world" (which is unreal from the get-go) but something extra-worldly, i.e, Truth. So I'd change my answer to "neither pill, thank you very much." Blissfully ignorant of an unreal "reality" or knowledgeable of an unreal "reality," however deep, sounds much the same to me. Repetitive trips on the roller coaster of worldly life gets to be excruciatingly boring. Maddeningly so.

 

[February-Saturday]

Oh, perhaps then I have answered ignorantly. Never having seen The Matrix, I thought taking the red pill in the OP's poll represented something else, not "powerless reality of the world" (which is unreal from the get-go) but something extra-worldly, i.e, Truth. So I'd change my answer to "neither pill, thank you very much." Blissfully ignorant of an unreal "reality" or knowledgeable of an unreal "reality," however deep, sounds much the same to me. Repetitive trips on the roller coaster of worldly life gets to be excruciatingly boring. Maddeningly so.

There's a huge cultural gap in how we're both describing "world." "World" in the Gnostic sense refers to the Pleroma, which is the whole of all aeons. It's not necessarily talking about physical "worldliness" or carnality, or even material existence at all.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

There's a huge cultural gap in how we're both describing "world." "World" in the Gnostic sense refers to the Pleroma, which is the whole of all aeons. It's not necessarily talking about physical "worldliness" or carnality, or even material existence at all.

OHHHHHH!! Thank you for that info! Is that also what the basis of The Matrix movie, referenced by the OP, is about?? Don't want to derail the thread, just trying to get clarity on which or what kind of world he meant. But also, doesn't aeons refer to time, which is also an unreal construct? I'll go google Pleroma now, too.

Edit: Yikes, that didn't enlighten me at all. I have to see if there's a DIR for Gnosticism and learn about it.

 

[VoidoftheSun]

I'll be chugging that Red Pill all day baby!

 

[February-Saturday]

OHHHHHH!! Thank you for that info! Is that also what the basis of The Matrix movie, referenced by the OP, is about?? Don't want to derail the thread, just trying to get clarity on which or what kind of world he meant. But also, doesn't aeons refer to time, which is also an unreal construct? I'll go google Pleroma now, too.

Yes, the Matrix is a massive over-simplification of the Gnostic concept of stepping out of the illusory material realm and into the higher spiritual world, which became associated with some of the concepts in "Simulacra and Simulation" by Jean Baudrillard although this portrayal of the Matrix is not what Baudrillard was talking about in his book. It's closer to its Gnostic and Cartesian roots.

 

[Sw. Vandana Jyothi]

Yes, the Matrix is a massive over-simplification of the Gnostic concept of stepping out of the illusory material realm and into the higher spiritual world, which became associated with some of the concepts in "Simulacra and Simulation" by Jean Baudrillard although this portrayal of the Matrix is not what Baudrillard was talking about in his book. It's closer to its Gnostic and Cartesian roots.

Thank you again, and I did find the Gnosticism DIR. Very, very interesting. There are posts in there that sparkle with the Truth that I have experienced. Can't get enough of that sparkle, no matter the Name of the basket I find it in!

 

[Tambourine]

I would eat from the Tree of Knowledge.

 

[Thief]

I took both

deja vu is real