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The red pill or blue?
![[PokeCommunity.com] Blue pill or red pill?](https://i.postimg.cc/MZ97Gfc0/1-4r-Eh-Nh7-Ec-FKg-Tilb-DGOYqg.jpg "[PokeCommunity.com] Blue pill or red pill?")
The red pill is to come to a harsh revelation, and the blue pill is to not investigate any further.
Do you think it is best to have the truth, even if the facts are unpleasant ones? Or is the adage sometimes true that ignorance is bliss?
For myself I would rather confront the reality, even when the truth is ugly, than just live in complete unawareness, especially if I might make different decisions based on new information, than I would without said knowledge. So I guess give me red.
When it comes to telling others something that they might be unhappy to hear though, I second guess myself more, and wonder sometimes whether or not to share hard facts, if someone hasn't asked me specifically for them, and seems happy.
Just to give an example, an aunt and uncle of mine mentioned that they had gone to the movies to see the live-action Mulan movie when it was released. The first thing that came to mind was the state agency in China that the film was made in cooperation with, and the reported human rights abuses that were taking place in the region where people were interned in camps, and facing other forms of discrimination on the basis of religion. That was a factor in why I made sure not to patronize that film. I didn't mention these things because everyone had already seen the movie. It was too late to not get tickets to it. Since they had a nice time, I thought it kinder to let them keep their good memories, and didn't see the benefit that carrying bad news would bring at that point.
I thought about this topic again because yesterday my mom saw a video on youtube of an elephant in a camp in Thailand, painting a picture with it's trunk. She was so impressed by how delicately the elephant painted, and it inspired her as a former artist to see the animal's control and the detail the painting had, comparing it to human artwork. She thought the elephant was such an endearing sight, and that she was watching a spontaneous expression of creativity. The truth is probably not as nice as that though. While elephants are incredibly intelligent animals, performing tricks like painting, dancing and playing sports are things they are trained to do from everything I have read, and the methods of coercion include violence, and considered unethical to environmental activists. I have been grappling with whether or not to say anything though because I saw how much that video brightened her day. If she was going to go visit an elephant camp like the one in the video, then I wouldn't be able to stay silent, and would encourage her to consider getting more information before supporting the enterprise, but since it's not something that has progressed beyond just viewing one video online that a tourist uploaded, I think maybe I should just let her imagine that the elephant she saw was happy, even though I doubt it was. I dunno though.
How do you approach life, red pill or blue?
The red pill is to come to a harsh revelation, and the blue pill is to not investigate any further.
Do you think it is best to have the truth, even if the facts are unpleasant ones? Or is the adage sometimes true that ignorance is bliss?
For myself I would rather confront the reality, even when the truth is ugly, than just live in complete unawareness, especially if I might make different decisions based on new information, than I would without said knowledge. So I guess give me red.
When it comes to telling others something that they might be unhappy to hear though, I second guess myself more, and wonder sometimes whether or not to share hard facts, if someone hasn't asked me specifically for them, and seems happy.
Just to give an example, an aunt and uncle of mine mentioned that they had gone to the movies to see the live-action Mulan movie when it was released. The first thing that came to mind was the state agency in China that the film was made in cooperation with, and the reported human rights abuses that were taking place in the region where people were interned in camps, and facing other forms of discrimination on the basis of religion. That was a factor in why I made sure not to patronize that film. I didn't mention these things because everyone had already seen the movie. It was too late to not get tickets to it. Since they had a nice time, I thought it kinder to let them keep their good memories, and didn't see the benefit that carrying bad news would bring at that point.
I thought about this topic again because yesterday my mom saw a video on youtube of an elephant in a camp in Thailand, painting a picture with it's trunk. She was so impressed by how delicately the elephant painted, and it inspired her as a former artist to see the animal's control and the detail the painting had, comparing it to human artwork. She thought the elephant was such an endearing sight, and that she was watching a spontaneous expression of creativity. The truth is probably not as nice as that though. While elephants are incredibly intelligent animals, performing tricks like painting, dancing and playing sports are things they are trained to do from everything I have read, and the methods of coercion include violence, and considered unethical to environmental activists. I have been grappling with whether or not to say anything though because I saw how much that video brightened her day. If she was going to go visit an elephant camp like the one in the video, then I wouldn't be able to stay silent, and would encourage her to consider getting more information before supporting the enterprise, but since it's not something that has progressed beyond just viewing one video online that a tourist uploaded, I think maybe I should just let her imagine that the elephant she saw was happy, even though I doubt it was. I dunno though.
How do you approach life, red pill or blue?
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