(no subject)

[scottopic]

As in The Matrix, if you had access to the Red Pill and the Blue Pill -

You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.
You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Knowing full well what it means, would you ~make~ people take the red pill?
However you like to answer: as if you're just speculating about being a character in the movie, if you want to take it as metaphors for things in "real life", if you think "real life" is a Matrix of sorts - mechanical, spiritual, mental, whatever.

Do you? Do you not? Why or why not?
I know the "right" answer to this. Someone argue for me the "wrong" one.

---

Equilibrium is restored.

Decent chance of showing up to the Masquerade tonight.

Comments

[missrachael.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Ask Plato. :P

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

He just kept turning into dust :\

[servingdonuts.livejournal.com]

My answer is "no" in pretty much any context. I could argue that side all day, but since I suspect it's the "right" answer it's not all that interesting to you.

I could probably argue the other side, perhaps even convincingly, but I'm not up to the task of switching into "I don't actually believe what I'm saying" mode right now. Sorry. Maybe later...

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

Damn you!

[spiritchaser1.livejournal.com]

I have made people take the red pill in the past, and lived to regret it (almost didn't live to regret it a few times). I will not do that again. Everyone has to take it when they are ready, but only of their own choosing.

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

How far do you think you can go in presenting the pill?

[rhino777.livejournal.com]

I would say "yes". Of course I think everyone should be made to take a heavy hallucinogen at least once in their life if but to just 'shake up their bits and pieces' for a change.

[jaydedone.livejournal.com]

The red pill's just a meaner variant of the blue pill. They're both constructs made to suit various temperaments -- what you thought the "real" world had grown men running around in John Woo mecha? Please.

Some people can't be satisfied with the good life; everything has to be harsh. So feed them the red pill so that they can wallow in their misery and take delight from the suffering prevalent in the world around them. The "real" world's full of all the sociopaths and psychos who can't find a way to be happy on the blue medication. And good riddance to them. In the meantime, more steak and strippers please.

[unrepentant.livejournal.com]

Small world, I JUST posted about steak and strippers!!

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

Awesome take on it.

By the way, odds are increasing that I'll be able to attend game day!

[unrepentant.livejournal.com]

I would say "no". You can't MAKE someone WANT to know The Truth. Like the man said, some people can't HANDLE The Truth. You gotta do for YOU; you can't spend your time trying to bring others to their own salvation if they don't want to go.

How ya doin', man? Hug Phæ for me.

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

Good take on it.

Doing well, damned busy at work.
Keep plugging ahead, sir.

I do have something for you. Thanks to you both for the card!

[adrienmundi]

god(s/z) knows(know) I've felt the temptation to jam the red pill down the throats of others, from both compassion and frustration, but really i know that forcing my red into others is only another form of blue for them, and so I wait, anxiously, for others to join the/my party: come ON.....

[catholicpsyche.livejournal.com]

If we take the razor out of a suicide's hands, restrain them from the bridge, drain the poison, turn off the car - then yes, we cram it down their throats.

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

So...situational? :>

Two arguments. Same Person

[speaks.livejournal.com]

A counselor of sorts told me that I suffered from "White Knight" syndrome. That I encouraged people to throw their problems at me so that I could save them from their problems. He advised against it because A) I don't necessarily know what is right for others and B) I have no right to go around making decisions for other people.

In a fit of irony, when I told him I wanted to enter the priesthood, he said that he would actively thwart my entry to the tune of informing the Bishop things that I told him in confidence that would have jeopardized and probably prevented my entry.

When I told him he had no right, he told me a parable:

When a sheep strays from the flock too often, a shepard will break its leg. It will never walk correctly again, but it won't stray from the flock and be eaten by wolves.

"The problem with this world is we don't have enough people willing to break legs."

So, as you can guess, I am conflicted on this matter. Personally I will always chose a hard truth over a plesant lie, but I am not entirely certain its my right to go around forcing the red pill on people.

[chapel-of-words.livejournal.com]

Easy for me - if a bit literal. Two thrusts: 1) I don't view narcotics or near narcotics as a way of determining the truth - therefore if someone presented me "take this pill and all will become clear" I'd pass 100% of the time. Then immediately seek a different method of validating what they're saying. 2) In my belief system you don't accept external revelation as fact - you work to determine knowledge on your own and with others rather than having it given to you. Different reasons but same result as #1.

-shrugs

May mean I'm stuck in the Matrix for awhile. =)

Tim C.

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

Hell, how do you like your steak? :>

hmmm... twisty.

[schartok.livejournal.com]

once i determine the world is not what 'everyone thinks' i have much exploring to do. once it is determined that one world is an illusion, there's no stopping til you reach amber. or amber' :)
if you found the exit, and returned to play usher for a door noone else could see you would have to teach them to see it first. and then push them through. with a wavy zen-stick! buddha was a damn busybody.

Re: hmmm... twisty.

[servingdonuts.livejournal.com]

Best reply yet.

Okay, second best.

[bedivere.livejournal.com]

As for making people take the red pill, I gotta say no. It seems to me that people's degrees of inquistiveness vary so widely. Whether this is nature or nurture I can't really say.. but in any event people find all kinds ways to meet the requirements of their psyches and souls. Far be it from me to be so presumptuous as to tell anyone that the pursuit of truth is in their best interest.

[scottopic.livejournal.com]

Um, in that case...don't drink water from the Atlanta Municipal System between January 3rd and 6th ;)

[fairyhead.livejournal.com]

A bit off topic, but here's what went through my mind, before I got the point of 'right' or 'wrong' answers.

"Why should I give a fuck if someone wants to take the red or the blue pill?!? Just so long as they let me choose my pill, I'm happy."

A large part of that is about wanting to let people choose, but there's also a goodly dose of just not wanting to deal with people in general.

(I feel like I should add the caveat that folks that I like are not people. They're better than that.)

[servingdonuts.livejournal.com]

Hm. Are you also then suggesting that you might not let the folks you like choose?

Interesting concept... I can actually agree with that to some degree. The ones I care about are exceptions to rules that I would normally apply to every other person on earth. I would kill and die to protect or avenge them, for example. Is it wrong, then, to think that I might deny them their own free will if they are going to hurt themselves?

That runs the risk of treating your loved ones not as people but as objects. I think there's a balance, though, in a healthy relationship. Not a balance, really, but a fusion between "I respect your wishes more than anything else" and "I treasure your well-being more than anything else."

[daoistraver.livejournal.com]

of course not.

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

Even if you did, it would not work anyways.
It's not about the pill

[morbid-o.livejournal.com]

thats what I thought.

and fwiw part 2 is the only part of thaat trilogy I cared for, and even at that I'd rather watch Law and Order

If it were me...

[ripebastard.livejournal.com]

I would tell them they know too much already and jab their chest with my fingers giving them a cold slow death.

Goddamn humans...

If only the grand synthetic council we need to switch to fusion power and dump the whole lot of them into a compost heap. Hell... Why not use cows... Cows aren't going around waking up and then hacking the network.

Or we could just convert them all to a fancy religion and tell them that they die and promise immortality and then they would behave if they followed our religion.

Its what I did in 2045... It was either that or get eaten by robotic spiders fueled on the flesh of the dead. Converting to synthetic lifeform was the best choice of my life!

I guess the question should be more on the lines "Do you like getting eaten by robotic spiders? Well... Do you?"

But seriously...

[ripebastard.livejournal.com]

The correct answer to your question is:

Mu

[n3m3sis42.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't make people do shit. I mean, in some ways, I'd like to, but I'm pretty sure that if they want to, people can manage to live outside reality no matter what you do to try to change that.

[iconnu.livejournal.com]

My entire career will be based on people paying me money to force that pull down their throats.

[iconnu.livejournal.com]

More on this later, and shizz.

[pamc.livejournal.com]

No. It's not right for everyone.