In The Matrix, the protagonist, Neo, lives in a world simulated by machines. At one point, he is asked to take one of two pills the blue pill or the red pill. To take the blue pill is to stay as he is, living in a simulated world. To take the red pill is to know that he lives in a simulation.
This is the second time I’ve seen the movie, but Magdala asked us all an interesting question: which would you have taken? Originally, I had thought that I wanted to take the red pill, because I, as curious humans do, generally want to know things. Also, I thought it’d be fun to try to save the world. But have you ever heard of the phrase “What you don’t know can’t hurt you”?
If I couldn’t do anything to save the world and it was simply a matter of choosing whether or not I knew, then I think the right decision is to choose the blue pill. If it was out of my control, then why bother? Why bother knowing the pointlessness of our lives? I’d rather just live it out as if it were real. Because for all we can know and do, it is real.
I also think that at my current state I would take the blue pill and live out the rest of my life in blissful ignorance. But what about the opposite? Would you do what Cypher did and betray his fellow humans in order to go back to living in the dream world? I’d like to think that I wouldn’t, but it’s a much harder question to answer.
Your change of heart reminded me of Ning Ning’s post. The vast majority of the people at the movie claimed that they would take the red pill given the chance. But I imagine this is just a knee-jerk response. Taking time to really think of the red pill’s consequences, the total shattering of everything you’ve ever known, and a leading to realization of a much more depressing and horrifying reality than what you knew. At this point, blissful ignorance seems like a pretty great option.