Shadows on the Wall

 I took Philosophy 101 as a sophomore in college. At that time, I just didn't get it. It bored me. I just didn't understand how all these books about philosophy and the old, dead men that wrote them, had anything to do with the actual life I was living. Although I did give the class a real effort towards what I thought should be an "easy A" (I got a C) I just didn't have enough experience and introspection to understand the appeal of studying what I then considered as nothing more than intellectual navel gazing.


Autodidacticism enabled by daily exploring of teh interwebz for over a decade has most assuredly shown me the error of my ways. Philosophy is at it's core, the search for the truth. There is nothing more interesting, nay, utterly fascinating, than to discover that something you've believed in and followed your entire life, has been nothing but deliberately fostered falsehoods and delusions, indoctrinated for the express purpose of controlling your behavior.

It is the very core of the Matrix allegory...which has now become the predominant zeitgeist of this virtual place we now call the manosphere or androsphere.

Everyone is 'taking the red pill' these days, eh?

Except everyone has gotten there own definitions of what exactly is the 'red pill' and what is the 'blue pill.'

Boiled down to it's basic core, the red pill is truth, the blue pill, lies. Lies that keep us unaware of the metaphorical matrix that has been constructed to enslave humanity and harvest our life force, our energy, our very essence, to fuel it's own purpose.


Like a stagecoach horse with blinders on, allowing it only to see the road ahead so that it can concentrate solely on it's task it's owner demands of it, so to are we the sheeple of this Brave New World Order given our own set of blinders so that we stay firmly plugged in to the Matrix, laboring for the benefit of the system, rather than ourselves.

The Matrix is very real, and we are all plugged into it in some way or another. But the idea itself, of keeping human beings enslaved by limiting their ability to see the bigger picture of their existence, so that they do not even know they are enslaved, is an old one...very old.

Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

Yes, he said.
And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?

Very true.
And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?

No question, he replied.
To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

The red pill | blue pill allegory is really nothing more than the offer to Socrates allegorical prisoners to allow them the opportunity to take off the chains and climb out of the cave and see the world as it really is.

Come see the truth...or don't. You can stay right where you are, comfortable amongst your fellow prisoners,  firmly enthralled and entertained with watching the shadows on the wall. These shadows, they have messages for you, messages that will help you bear your existence, chained and enslaved.


From The Allegory of the Cave:

Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance.  We are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know.  When we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many people run back to their old lives.  But if you continue to seek truth, you will eventually be able to handle it better.  In fact, you want more!  It's true that many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to society, but you don't care.  Once you've tasted the truth, you won't ever want to go back to being ignorant!

In the 21st century, our cave is our matrix. Our views of the world and reality, nothing more than the shadows of lies, delusions and illusions projected not on a cave wall, but into our minds, by our televisions, movie screens, bill boards, newspapers, magazines, books and all other manifestations of mass media.

Take the red pill...or take off your chains and get out of the cave. Live a real life as you were meant to.

Or, take the blue pill, keep the chains on, and spend the rest of your existence in the bowels of that dark cave...the light outside is too bright and dangerous anyways.