One of my regular daily stops of about six on the internet is Real Clear Politics (I am not being paid for this endorsement), and there I usually look at video clips it has posted. One this last week was an interview by Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report of a black female conservative, Candace Owens, who owns a youtube channel titled Red Pill Black. She probably isn’t news to some of you, but she was to me. I didn’t watch the whole interview, because it was too long, but the first part of it was fascinating how evil again the leftist media is. I write all that, however, to say that the greatest effect of this was the concept of the “red pill.” Why was she being called, red pill black? The black part I got, but not the red pill.
I can get things that aren’t meant to be totally obvious, but I started by speculating that “red pill” was a pill that someone takes that turns him red politically, as in “red state.” Only since 2000 have conservative states been called, “red,” which is confusing to older people. Even
Wikipedia says:
The choice of colors reverses a long-standing convention of political colors whereby red symbols (such as the Red Flag or Red Star) are associated with left-wing politics, and right-wing movements often choose blue as a contrasting color.
Uh…yeah. I’d already cleared up red means conservative, but add to that pill. So I looked up “red pill,” and Wikipedia had already owned that trend too with
a page on “red pill and blue pill,” which says that it is a popular cultural symbol. Between the two, the red pill is reality and the blue pill is blissful ignorance or illusion.
The metaphor goes back further than popular culture, because for awhile people have said, “I wish I could take a pill.” And the answer might be, “There is no pill.” You can only wish there was a pill that you could take so that you wouldn’t have to learn algebra, but you could just take the algebra pill. The ultimate in pills would be a pill that reveals to someone the truth about everything.
In the first of a science fiction movie series in 1999, the Matrix, the main character is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill, offering the same explanations of reality versus the same old, same old. It explores a epistemological question. How do we really know that we’re not all just brains in a vat?
I’m contending that the Bible is the red pill, which is why it’s not allowed at blue institutions. They offer only the blue pill. You can’t take the red pill on a state campus. They have an investment in people never taking the red pill. They only sell blue pills. It costs you the price of college tuition.
The Bible tells the truth about reality. This is something all over scripture, this idea, and it’s been there a long time. Jesus said the truth sets you free (John 8:32), and freedom from sin is freedom from thinking and acting wrong. The truth allows you to get it right, not only informs but empowers.
People take the blue pill. The Bible teaches that. They know God, but say, nope, I want the blue pill. The blue represents the life that they want, or what they think they want, that won’t end well, because it is based upon a lie.
After you take the blue pill, you might and probably do think that there was an explosion of matter of unexplained origins. This explosion turned into an organized network of astrological amazement that navigators can guide their ships by. The sun, perfect distance from earth. Moon too. Followed by a lightning strike into a protoplasmic pool of unknown causality. From there, fully developed brains, two eyes, a complex of systems, DNA, etc. All an accident. Thank your lucky stars. This is the result of the blue pill. It’s not real. You have to believe this for self-autonomy.
People stuck in this ignorance mock the people who understand reality. Something breaks through the trance and they have to ward it off. Jokes and insults fend off reality, settle back into this dream state.
The Greek word for “world” is kosmos, which is the root for cosmetic. The world purveys a lie that sends people merrily on their way to a fiery eternity. Jesus pictures this with his parable of the dragnet. Fish swim safely around, oblivious of the net closing around them, unaware of the danger. This is all blue pill behavior.
You haven’t taken the red pill until you’ve really taken the red pill. If the red pill is reality, then it is the Bible. If it’s not the Bible, it’s still some shade of blue.
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James,
So true, but I wondered if you meant to put it under the next post about the ungovernable.