De rode of de blauwe pil

Enkele jaren geleden schreef ik dit bericht op een andere, oude blog. Weliswaar in het Engels, maar ik vind het nog steeds relevant, dus ik wil het hier graag nog eens delen voor iedereen die er in geïnteresseerd is.

The red or the blue pill: is there really a choice?

What I think is really interesting is how humanism fits in this world of contradicting ideas. The problems of contemporary society are, most of the time, the boundaries itself that most people see in their lives. What is normal and what isn’t?

This is interesting, because even with strict ethics most things would probably be considered okay as long as most people would allow it to be that way, even if these things would be really bad. So what is really driving people not to take a more ethical and better path after all? Is it really just the pressure from people in their environment or are there other factors as well?

Michel Foucault states that in order to get out of this social structure devoid of meaning we should be able to create our own environment to live in, with our own values and own meaning. Because we are currently living in a time in which it is getting more and more obvious that most things are not made because we need them; most things are created in order for us to want them. Production comes before need. The idea is to find your own way in this system, in such a way that in the end the system itself will change.

In a good way, I hope. People can see by themselves what is morally right and wrong. So once they see something that should change, anyone that recognizes the problem and knows how to operate against it is, essentially, even more responsible than the people who do not know about it.

You probably know the movie ‘The Matrix’. Sometimes I feel like I have taken the red pill. I am now aware of things that I cannot close my eyes for anymore. I would feel bad, guilty and irresponsible if I would just ignore it and go along with the rest that does not know. Not even negotiate with Agent Smith; just get captured, get a similar thing to the blue pill and go back to the fake dream world that many people still live in... It simply seems impossible for me to do.

But maybe it is not as simple as this. Maybe more people know. Maybe these people are not yet sure whether they want to take the red pill or the blue pill. It really is a matter of responsibility. In a way there can’t really be a grey area between ‘to know’ and ‘to not know’, so maybe the red and blue pills are actually good metaphors. Of course, there are things, in the area of many things that really needs to change or be improved in this world, that we, as humans, are not entirely sure about how to do it. But there are many things that can be improved, and still people do not do this. Maybe there even is group pressure in the choice of going for the red or the blue pill?

If you are living in a world that is flawed in so many ways, you really need to go against the flow and try to change the things that are within your power.