I don’t know if anyone has ever made a political ad based
upon the movie The Matrix, and its
color-coded pills, but when you think about it, it’s perfect: the pills are red
and blue, and the blue pill keeps you in the Matrix that controls your life,
while the red pill awakens you to reality and tosses you out of the Matrix and
its life support system, enabling you to fight the system. And blue is the
color of the Democratic Party, and red is the color of the Republican Party.
And that seems pretty appropriate when you think about it, doesn’t it?
But this idea can be used for a political ad for either
party pretty much equally well: that’s the funny thing. It’s just a matter or
making the Matrix system seem benevolent or malevolent. After all, while it
does feed off of humans, it also provides for them. On the other hand, it might
be nice to have personal freedom from a ravenous all-controlling system that
completely controls your whole life.
So for a political ad for Republicans based upon The Matrix, first wee see a scene like
the one from The Matrix where someone
is offered a blue pill or a red pill. In the first scenario, the character
takes the blue pill. The blue pill represents the Democratic Party, and when
they take the blue pill, they become conditioned to accept big government
controlling every aspect of their lives, and they lose their personal freedoms
while being forced to participate in numerous cradle-to-grave government
programs, causing their lives to be monopolized by bureaucratic red tape; but
while they are frustrated, they have been brainwashed to accept this as an
unavoidable reality, as education as well as news and entertainment are largely
controlled by liberal Democrats, so big government taking over everyone’s life
seems normal to them.
Then we see the scenario flipped, and this time the
character takes the red pill. The red pill represents the Republican Party, and
as soon as the character takes the red pill, reality begins to fall apart, and
the character sees the system of big government for what it is (according to
how Republicans see it): a voracious monstrosity attempting to control everyone
and everything, taking freedom and liberty and individualism from everyone,
feeding off the people, addicting them to social programs to buy votes and
maintain absolute control. And so our hero joins with the Republicans, a ragtag
band of stalwart heroic warriors bent on removing the stranglehold big
government has on everyone’s life and winning back the individual liberties
guaranteed in the Constitution.
And for a political ad for Democrats based upon The Matrix, we see people living their
lives normally, with job security, nice housing, healthcare, etc. Oh, but then
someone is offered a choice, and they take the red pill, representing the
Republicans, and immediately the system rejects them, and we see the scene
where the person in the pod is unplugged from the system by a robot, and then
they’re flushed out of the system in a completely weakened state to fend for
themselves or die. Except in this case, there’s no ship of rebels to save them,
and subjected to the harshness of the world, without the help from the
government, they suffer and die of exposure and hunger. And then the announcer
says that Republicans view the government as an evil system like in The Matrix, and if they gain control of
it again, they’ll try to destroy it, and kick everyone off of the necessary support
systems, leaving everyone helpless and alone to fend for themselves, with
nowhere to turn, in difficult, turbulent times.
See how well this would work as a political ad for both
sides? Which pill would you pick: comfort and security with major tradeoffs in
liberty vs. freedom and liberty with hardship and no guarantees of security?
And that’s really where we are today choice-wise, between the two political
parties, according to the cases they make for each of their sides, and what
they stand for. It comes down to how you feel about the Matrix (read: Big
Government) as a system: friend or foe.
(BTW: I’m not advocating for either political party: I’m an
Independent. I don’t like either of them, and their constant partisan bickering
is tearing this country apart.)
