To take the red pill is to see the truth, the Real World, and to take the blue pill is to remain in the (quite possibly false) reality one knows. The choice between red and blue pill comes down to how much an individual values philosophical absolutism, especially over aesthetics. For the sake of this analysis, happiness, being seen as a product of beauty, or even identical to beauty, will be considered a philosophical value, an aesthetic and moral good to pursue. Anyone who values aesthetics (and thus happiness) over philosophical absolutism would choose the blue pill because happiness, subjectively, is guaranteed in ignorance; truth promises no aesthetic or moral benefit, and human sentimentality and emotion make abandonment of our established life bases near to impossible.
It is a bit of a hindrance that the false world an individual could choose to escape by taking the red pill is often depicted as some sort of hellscape; the blue-pill world of the film The Matrix’s being one of capitalist enslavement and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave’s being one of absolute restriction complete with uncomfortable chains and darkness. These examples, however grim they are, provide their actual inhabitants just as much happiness as more modern iterations of Plato’s cave do; think of The Truman Show and Barbieland, both extremely bright and bubbly settings, but still not the Real World. In the false world, they have friends and daily lives. Though it is difficult, just as one must imagine Sisyphus, Camus’ mythical man, finding happiness as he eternally rolls an enormous boulder up a hill, one must imagine Plato’s slaves in the cave are happy in their own way as well. And for aesthetes, those who value happiness (aesthetics) above all, remaining happy – no matter how limited the definition of that state - is the ultimate goal. Therefore, the aesthetes would choose to remain in their known reality, effectively choosing the blue pill.
It could be argued that the potentiality of the Real World as embodied in the red pill would offer more aesthetic opportunities, and therefore that aesthetes would choose to exit their known realities and choose the red pill, in order to gain or simply change their known form of happiness. And even if there were no such potential in the Real World, it could be suggested that the very nature of Truth, as seen in the Real World, would bring enough happiness to justify upheaving reality. The phrase, the truth will set you free, supports this position, but also arrogantly assumes that freedom means happiness, or is compatible with happiness, and also that no one who is deprived of the truth can ever lead a truly good life. This is a fallacy which has been disproven throughout history, the phrase, ignorance is bliss, did not come from nowhere. As George Michael elegantly puts it, in an aesthetically pleasing song, “There’s no comfort in the truth; pain is all that you’ll find.” If the truth really is ugly, as the phrase has been coined, then anyone who values aesthetics and happiness would be readily deterred, even given the potential of seeing the sun not through shadows, but in its bare state.
Because the choice of red or blue pill is given to a lone individual, it can be assumed that only the individual will be making the choice. This means that in the case of a red pill choice, to see the truth means not only to sacrifice happiness and face possible ugliness, but to say goodbye to loved ones, a home, a community, an entire life. One with sentimentality in mind, or one with an attachment to others, would find it incredibly difficult to make the choice to abandon the life the blue pill affords them. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave mentions games the slaves play with each other over the shadows, and while these are surely meant to appear pathetic compared to the marvels the Real World offers in abundance, they are almost certainly valued very highly to the slaves who’ve never known anything else. To say goodbye to not just a game one has played their whole life, but the only home one knows, creates a pain and a loneliness not worth any intrigue or even illumination the red pill holds.
In summary, any aesthete would choose the blue pill over the red pill because the blue pill promises happiness whereas the red pill promises ugliness, and sentimentality takes precedent. I admit there is something inexplicably desirable about the absolute truth, and therefore about the red pill, but ultimately the risks of incompatibility with all that is precious are too great. As a person almost vainly obsessed with the aesthetics life has to offer, and as a person strongly attached to what is familiar in my life and in my atmosphere, the choice is clear: I would take the blue pill.
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