two hundred fifty six

THE MATRIX 

When a beautiful stranger Trinity (Carrie-Ann Moss) leads computer hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves) to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence. They then remove his body that has been used to produce electricity and bring him into reality. Once he discovers the truth he is trained to go on missions in and out of this alternate reality called the Matrix. There were three Matrix movies and it is rumored a fourth is coming out in 2021. 

They were entertaining and thought provoking. They are attaining cult classic status by injecting ideas and thoughts into our culture. References to living in the Matrix are in our daily conversations particularly a reference to  "Red Pilled or Blue Pilled". Artificial Intelligence or AI is here now, this has stirred our imaginations about a take over once it becomes self aware. I believe we have much more to fear from our fellow humans but the principles of the red and blue pills apply.

 Red pilled, embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality, or blue pilled, remain in the blissful ignorance of illusion.  I think most people want to be in control of everything in their reality, but many find the stress of life physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually much too painful to deal with. I have made this choice myself.  I don't think we live in an ultimate reality but I do think we can choose not to see the one we are in, here are a few examples.

The Ostrich approach to life is very common. I call it that because these giant birds well equipped to deal with most dangers choose to hide their heads to pretend they are safe because they can't see or hear the danger.  Many people take this approach by completely hiding from all negativity be it physical discomfort, emotional stress, mentally challenging or uncomfortable truth. 

Another approach is what I call the tribal approach. Group think or group reality is a way of avoiding responsibility for our own choices. This relieves us of responsibilities. We don't have to make decisions for ourselves we simply rely on the group opinion. However there is always an alpha dominating the group. The personality, values and virtue of this leader is crucial to the success or failure of the group. 

There is a requirement to be a loyal member of the tribe you must not challenge the collective truth and above all be blindly loyal to the beliefs facts and opinions of the tribe. The occasional member (Red Pilled) who may question or disagree with the tribe may face rejection even banishment. 

This is very common in our world today, cliques, different racial groups even political parties. All of these prefer uninformed dependent and not curious people (Blue Pilled) or sheep. The worse thing that can happen to a tribes not so virtuous leader is to have  smart informed curious sheep. 

The ideal tribe member relies on the leader for everything. If things go well the leader takes credit, if things go poorly the leader often blames a different tribe for what went wrong. They point out your life sucks because of them, they lied to or about you, they hate you and want to or have hurt you. This allows the tribal leader to take no responsibility or blame and allows the tribal members to become victims. They then are justified in lying, hating and hurting other tribes. The leader is then strengthened because he is the only one who cares. 

Closed minded is another Blue Pill approach, "I know it all, seen it all and done it all". I have met a few people who are very well educated, successful in life and very socially active. They have achieved a comfortable well earned level of success and are satisfied with knowing what they know and have no interest or curiosity in learning anything that challenges their comfort zone. One trait is to mock or look down on others which is a form of defense that I believe is based in fear. Some may call them the cool kids.

One thing for sure being Red Pilled is a very hard place to live because we have to take responsibility for ourselves, the things that we know, our choices and consequences. 

In the movie Neo took the Red Pill once, if we choose to take the Red or Blue pill we need to take it every day. This concept in the movie is intriguing but I think the general choice of truth of willful ignorance is something we do everyday. 

The shock that Neo experienced from learning he had lived his entire life was a computer program almost killed him. The shock of finding out what you thought was real or true has been a lie can also be a shock. Red Pilled is described as turning on a light, opening up our minds or taking off the blinders. It all starts with a willingness to test and challenge what we think is true or real and be willing to accept what we discover.

Red Pilled truth or reality, how do we find it? First it takes a willingness to truly want to find it. Some say there are many "truths", and everyone has their own "truth". If you are honest with yourself this is bumper sticker on a Prius self denial bull shit. I hear this thrown around by people satisfied with what they know and don't want their "truth" challenged. This is because they don't know how to defend it or even explain it. An honest search for truth means you get your head out of the sand, take off your tribal hat and open your mind to the possibility you don't know everything. 

Second truth if it is true will always stand up under scrutiny. Test it challenge it try to prove it wrong. Read what you shouldn't read, ask questions you shouldn't ask and follow every thread to where ever it goes. Always be willing to listen and never stop looking. 

I hate being lied to so I don't put my trust blindly into anyone and I don't want anyone to completely trust everything I say. You need to paddle your own canoe. It is tempting to gather a following but I don't want the responsibility. I have enough trouble cleaning up my own messes.

I will talk about the truth I have discovered, I'll even tell you how much I trust it is true. However at the end of the day it is on you to make your own choice as to what truth you believe and trust. I write this simply to get people to think and motivate them to be curious.

 My bicycle trips are both an escape and a hard look at reality. I meet people along the way that have their reality challenged by some nut on a bicycle. If you ever see me we will have a conversation about something real. I have suffered through more than forty years of corporate meetings so I have wasted too many hours of my live to talk about meaningless crap.