The Matrix features an iconic scene in which the main character, played by Keanu Reeves, is offered a blue pill or a red pill. That scene, now part of our pop culture lexicon, represents an important choice:
You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
The red pill brings the pain experienced by living in reality.
"It is the pain of reality that will wake you up. That's from the movie. And the blue pill is the bliss of illusion. Pain and bliss --- one will keep you happy, and the other will wake you up because the truth is frightening. But only one leads to freedom," Glenn said.
Unfortunately, most Americans take the blue pill every single day.
"We are pushing our pain out and we're not allowing ourselves to collapse, while other things are progressing, we're in deep, deep trouble. Because what's happening is, there's no pain. There's no reason. There's no thought. There's no critical thinking. There's no reliance on something bigger than yourself," Glenn said.
Avoiding reality, and the accompanying pain, leads to an inevitable consequence: failure to learn, grow and develop as people.
Today, the pain most children experience is not having an iPhone or having a gaming system taken away.
"That's not pain. That does not build character at all," Glenn said.
Glenn spoke passionately about the future we're facing. With the technological capabilities coming our way, we have a critical choice to make with dramatically different results --- one of being forced servants to the government or one of limitless freedom and prosperity.
"The only cement that's being laid right now is fascism, communism and theocracy. And tech becomes its own god. Tech becomes its own drug. It's no longer a tool for man to use; it becomes a drug. It becomes man is a slave to technology. Read Carl Sagan: We go down. And if we go down --- Elon Musk and others say we destroy ourself --- it's the end of man," Glenn said.
Is there a chance to alter and right our course?
"Now, there is a chance of changing this," Glenn said. "And by 2030, we could be on the right track. And we have to be on the right track. Between 2020 and 2030, we must be on the right track."
Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:
Featured Image: Image from The Matrix, courtesy of Warner Bros.