I’m writing about this now because I really, really want to…
Think about the future with enthusiasm and joy
Still be a good guy
So, what’s the problem? What’s wrong with enthusiasm and joy?
That, of course, opens up the whole can of worms of the blue pill, the red pill, and all the other Matrix-related topics about which I’ve written previously.
As an example, I wrote a post for the American Independence Day about being red, white, and blue pilled.
Shall I go over the pill metaphors? I probably have to. As I wrote in the referenced article,
In the original Matrix film, the protagonist is offered a choice between a blue pill and a red pill to swallow. The blue pill allows him to continue to live with all the delusions, lies, and scams pumped into his brain by the villains of the story. The red pill, on the other hand, allows him to know the full truth, even if is most unpleasant, extremely challenging, or downright terrifying. Some time after the first Matrix movie was released, within the folklore of digital media two new pills evolved: the white and the black. To be “white-pilled” is to be optimistic…
So, here’s the problem.
If I ignore all the bad news with which we are saturated daily, I give the impression of being a blue-pilled midwit. On the other hand, focusing on or becoming obsessed with the bad news moves me closer in closer to the Doom Loop, turning into a walking talking human San Francisco.
Therefore, for a resolution to this dilemma, I must turn to Goldilocks for a solution. The doom porridge must not be too cold or too hot, but just right.
And so, right here and right now, I am going to dream up a fantasy of a rosy future, one that I might even experience myself if I live long enough.
Flying cars? Not out of the question.
But where would I fly in a flying car? I could be videoconferencing with friends and relatives. Heck, I do that already. And why fly anywhere in a car when I could be living in a fifteen-minute city?
Uh-oh. I just got a text message from Goldilocks:
Danger! Porridge exceeding safe thermal operating range. Abort! Repeat: Abort!
No, that was only an imaginary text message from Goldilocks, but I’ve probably given some developer an idea for a million-dollar app.
And, as an added intellectual bonus, for the first time I made the mental connection between the Chernobyl disaster (the old one) and Aristotle’s Golden Mean. (The Golden Mean is Goldilocks for adults.)
So, back to Planet Gaia.
Which means back to dreaming up an actual vision for the future.
I think of Wokeness as an intellectual ambush, and the conventional wisdom of ambushes is that you’ve got to plow ahead through them, and get out of the kill zone.
The future, therefore, would not mean a return to the past, which means it would not mean a return to a world without Wokeness, or a world without 洗腦, which is Chinese for wash brain, which is Chinese for CNN, MSNBC, PBS, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and… I haven’t even gotten started on the UK “wash brain” media, or those in languages other than English.
No, the porridge is heating up. I’ll stop there.
Now, on my most rosy red-pilled fantasy of the future, Wokeness and brainwashing might still exist in rare pockets, but have become artifacts of history, sort of like walking, shouting, papers-demanding Nazi SS officers still wearing death’s heads on their black uniforms.
School kids who get their online classes at Substack Elementary School, and have never set foot in a taxpayer-funded school, learn about the tragic history of the early 21st Century when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ruled the land.
The same kids would go on vacation in San Francisco, which would have a restored but now year-round Summer of Love. They would not go to Disneyland, which would be part of the Disneyland-Auschwitz International Museum of the Horrors of the Past. Adults Only.
Okay. I’m starting to get the hang of it. White-pilled, but not blue-pilled.
Would there be horror movies in the white-pilled future? Possibly. Me, I don’t like horror movies. Fox News is as close as I am willing to get. But I know there are people who do.
How about The Return of Klaus Schwab 5. Who needs Frankenstein, Dracula, or Godzilla? Horrific.
And of course, what of a white-pilled future of technology? Would the Apple VisionPro Goggles feature prominently?
Very possibly. Of course, they would be vastly improved from the prototypes. Essentially, they would be like regular sunglasses. You’d control them with gestures from your toes. You could videoconference with your friends on other continents, watch movies, and post to Substack all at the same time. Maybe even cook lunch, but if not, order takeout.
In the subtitle of this post I wrote something about the epistemology of brainwashing, so I’ll wrap it up with a little bit about that.
Epistemology is a fancy Greek name for a branch of philosophy which studies how we know about things, and what is true, and what is false.
Brainwashing, on the other hand, is a method of getting fellow humans to believe they know something which is actually false. It’s the Big Pharma of the Blue Pill.
(No, that was a metaphor. The Blue Pill of delusion doesn’t really exist. The closest thing to it is Finasteride, a real pill, which is really blue, which is supposed to deal with male pattern baldness and prostatic enlargement.)
So, is there really anything new about people being blue-pilled?
No, but yes. The “yes” part is that the technology has improved. Or has it?
The old-fashioned way to cancel the speech of people with the wrong ideas was pretty effective. Like hanging witches who caused “climate change,” which Protestants did because they didn’t like nature and were looking for scapegoats. Or burning Protestants tied to a stake in the Public Square, which is what Catholics did because the didn’t like heretical ideas. Or whipping renegade Jews and nailing them to a cross, which is what Romans did because the High Priests wanted them to do that, because the High Priests didn’t like the renegade Jews saying stuff which ultimately would lead to Catholicism and Protestantism.
Nasty business.
At least J. K. Rowling has not been hanged for a witch, or burned at the stake, or whipped and nailed to a cross.
Now, I could be black-pilled and say, “yet.” But I won’t, because I’m a white-pilled kind of guy.
Will I watch any of the horror movies of the Klaus Schwab series when they come out?
Probably not.
Like the too hot, too cold, just right comparison. I've found Little Red to be helpful, if it looks, sounds, and smells like a wolf....stories from the past with lessons about humanity we learned as a child, finally understanding them.
This was a hilarious read, I enjoyed it I love how you poked fun at everyone. Tbh, I don't know what the future holds, and while I remain firmly black-pilled about Canada's survival, I remain optimistic about what a divided Canada will look like (by that I mean a Republique de Quebec, and the Anglo-West going to the US or becoming a number of smaller countries).
In my view though, the future could tilt either towards peaceful good or dystopia. I pray for the former, and remain convinced that the forces of darkness are losing, they may have the upper hand in the short-term but they'll ultimately fall and fail.