The Blues v. The Reds
By Vince Milum

Copyright © 2005.  All rights reserved.

Thanks to the introduction of color printing in the newspaper business, our nation has been divided into "blues" and "reds." For the uninitiated, "blues" represent predominantly liberal states/counties that tend to vote for the Democratic Party while "reds" represent more conservative states/counties that tend to vote Republican. The coastal states — especially those that are home to the financial and media power centers of our country — are in the "blueblood" category, whereas ordinary folk in the heartland take on the role of good, old-fashioned "red-blooded" Americans. While this construct serves the media beast, it fails to capture the real BLUE versus RED battle going on. This one is between the overwhelming majority of people on earth who accept the perceived reality that is memetically presented to them every minute of their lives and that sliver of humanity who are Campbellian heroes embarking on the road never before traveled.

In the movie, The Matrix, this point was illustrated through the metaphorical use of pills. The vast majority of the world’s population had taken a blue pill which allowed them to be content to live their formulaic lives while an infinitesimal fraction had elected for a red pill and were awakened to challenge the totality of the ill-perceived existing world order. This latter group of Über-men and women, though awakened to their full potentiality, were prepared to live desolate lives as a messianic price for refusing to accept the mundane.

Unfortunately, most people have missed the point of The Matrix entirely. As was made clear in the closing scenes of the third and final installment of the trilogy, we are not to endlessly "fight" for what we believe, rather, we are to confront that aspect in each of us which perpetuates conflict — both with others and within ourselves. It is only when we arrest the internal beast that outward peace and true prosperity can manifest themselves. And when a sliver of humanity grows into a critical mass dedicated to the service of all — irrespective of perceived differences — desolation becomes a thing of the past.

So, for those of you who insist on fighting for one "-ism" to prevail over another, I offer these words of advice from my late (distant) cousin on the Lennon/Linnane side of the family:

"You better free your mind instead."

[*Within the same song, Revolution, John Lennon also said, "when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out!"]