The Matrix is a goldmine for metaphors. People draw from the movie when describing media (“the Matrix”), social dynamics (Red Pill community), and “the system” (“you’re just a battery in the Matrix”). It’s even an interesting take on Simulation Theory, which essentially states that since we can create simulations within our world, it is nearly certain that we are living in some other world’s simulation. (Am I just a Sims character being played by a being in the outer world? Is reincarnation just respawning after dying in the game?)
Simulation Theory aside, the Matrix is a treasure trove of metaphors about society because it is a portrayal of power and information dynamics made literal on screen. The Matrix, a concrete representation of “the system”, is an actual place in the movie. The red and blue pills, concrete representations of two choices involving truth, are literal pills that you can swallow. Workers are batteries that power the Matrix, which is a literal representation of the way society is sustained by the labor of exploited workers.
There red pill blue pill metaphor is tricky to map onto reality. The red pill is supposed to represent the Truth, where the Truth will set you free from the Matrix but leave your future uncertain. In real life, there are many red pills. At a simulation level, the taking the red pill means killing yourself in order to experience the higher level simulation (exactly what DiCaprio’s character’s wife did in Inception). At the level of “the system” or society, it means isolating yourself and living off the grid. At the job level, it means quitting your shitty job in order to pursue something that you really want. There are so many red pills and so many blue pills. Everyday we face Morpheus, who asks use the same question we’ve heard millions of times before: red pill or blue pill?
The red pill represents the unpleasant truth, which, by extension, means it represents power. It may not be nice to learn about a corporation is run, but it certainly gives you more power over your employees if you decide to start one. Same thing for military coups, politics, and any other power games out there.
Maybe people who always take the blue pill are sheep, but nobody has the stomach to always take the red pill. Both extremes are terrible in their own way. Taking too many blue pills leaves you clueless and ripe for exploitation. On the other hand, taking too many red pills leaves you disoriented, bitter and angry. So if we are living in the Matrix, the Matrix that The Matrix is referencing, then what‘s the best thing to do when you come face to face with Morpheus?
The first thing to understand here is that you will always be in a version of the Matrix. The Matrix is a simulation, and every time you escape a simulation, you end up in a higher order simulation. Think of Russian Nesting Dolls, but an infinite number of them. If you’re always in some version of the Matrix, that means you’ll never escape from Morpheus. No matter how many red pills you take, there will always be another Morpheus the in the higher-order simulation who will ask you the same question: red pill or blue pill?
The second thing to understand here is that not all red pills are created equal. Some are more important than others. For example: is it more important to learn the unpleasant truth about dating, or is it more important to learn the unpleasant truth about where your meat comes from? The former will probably have more impact on your life than the latter, so you could argue that the former is more important. Since there is a psychological limit on the number of red pills you can eat every day, it would make sense to choose the red pill on the most important decisions and take the blue pill the rest of the time.
The third thing to understand is that all of this is going on inside of your mind. You cannot physically break out of the Matrix with a hammer or with a pill. The Matrix is your perspective, your worldview, and all of this red pill blue pill stuff plays out in your mind. The Matrix is your map of the world, the red pill is the choice to update the map in the presence of new, conflicting information, and the blue pill is the choice not to (or put it off until later). You can only take so many red pills because you only have so much energy to update your map in a day.
NB: The only way to truly break out of the Matrix, once and for all, is by ditching your internal map. How you go about doing this, or how you would go about navigating the world after doing this, I’m going to leave to you and Buddhism / Hinduism to figure out.
The battle for your mind starts once you start to realize that the thoughts you think aren’t your thoughts and the things you want aren’t your desires. It takes time to come to this realization. The process involves observing what other people say and do, doing the math and figuring out what they think and what they want, and seeing that most of this is attributable to their environment and not themselves as unique individuals. Then, you turn lens on yourself and start tracing back the origin of your thoughts and wants. Lo and behold, most of these thoughts and desires can be traced to what you saw other people do and what you saw on TV, in books, or in magazines. Why do most business students want a job in investment banking or consulting? Why do people who grow up in the same neighborhoods gravitate towards the same consumer products? So on and so forth.
Once you untie your identity from your thoughts and desires and admit that most of them aren’t yours, you can start to fight the battle for your mind. On one side, there is you, and on the other side, there is everyone and everything else — the system, society, your family, the salesman who just knocked on your door, etc. The prize is your time, energy, and attention, and the goal is to redirect as much time, energy, and attention as possible towards actions that are good for you and the people you care about (what you actually want) and away from benefitting “the system”. In essence, you’re a battery, and you’re trying to unplug yourself from the Matrix. This realization and the ensuing battle is the red pill that is Morpheus is holding in the movie.
More on this in part two, coming next week.
