He is aware of conspiracies, yet he believes in the mother of all conspiracies: Religion. He loves The Matrix but is taking the blue pill. WTF?

[Edited 9/20/11 10:56am]

I honestly wouldn't bother with threads like this. No offense, but you know how it's going to go....

how is it going to go?

NouveauDance said:

I honestly wouldn't bother with threads like this. No offense, but you know how it's going to go....

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

electricberet said:

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

You have summed up this place brilliantly.

electricberet said:

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

That was a beautiful synopsis.

TheDigitalGardener said:

electricberet said:

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

You have summed up this place brilliantly.

Well Said.

I hope it doesn't happen this time.

electricberet said:

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

I think he took the red pill but he is chocking on it. Prince? Just let it go down easily.

electricberet said:

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

There it is. There it is.

All religions are Matrix's of sort. So it would make sense to take the blue pill.

which pill does what? I like tic tacs.

ufoclub said:

which pill does what? I like tic tacs.

Red pill sends you down the rabbit hole - "Kansas is about to go bye bye", etc...

Blue pill sends you into a deep sleep and you wake up the next day oblivious to all you've learnt about how things really are.

Tic tacs are yum.

Personally I think Prince took the red pill some time ago, but without a Morpheus to guide him he got stuck between worlds, so to speak.

Then again, I also think the rest of the posters are right and this forum, unfortunately, isn't a good place for this discussion.

Although, I was sure there was going to be a different "blue pill" joke in here somewhere...

Genesia said:

electricberet said:

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

That was a beautiful synopsis.

Thank you. While we're on the subject of movies, reading these threads reminds me of this:

my feeling is Prince takes a conspiracy theorist approach to religion, too

conspiracy theorists look for the most unlikely and complicated answer to things, and what is more unlikely and complicated than religion?

electricberet said:

Genesia said:

That was a beautiful synopsis.

Thank you. While we're on the subject of movies, reading these threads reminds me of this:

Sooo....anyone for chess then?

Guys, I don't understand the thread.

What do you mean with a red pill and blue pill? What is that about?

Prenzz said:

All religions are Matrix's of sort. So it would make sense to take the blue pill.

i would add that all realities are matrixs as well.

dJJ said:

Guys, I don't understand the thread.

What do you mean with a red pill and blue pill? What is that about?

It's from a movie called The Matrix about how what we think is the real world is actually a computer program and we're being kept alive to feed the computers. You really should watch it. Prince obviously liked it.

dJJ said:

Guys, I don't understand the thread.

What do you mean with a red pill and blue pill? What is that about?

It's a good movie - you can get a taste for it here (don't watch the clip if you absolutely hate spoilers, but this does happen early on in the movie):

edit: ack. Embedding fail. Fixed.

[Edited 9/20/11 18:40pm]

Chiquetet said:

dJJ said:

Guys, I don't understand the thread.

What do you mean with a red pill and blue pill? What is that about?

It's a good movie - you can get a taste for it here (don't watch the clip if you absolutely hate spoilers, but this does happen early on in the movie):

edit: ack. Embedding fail. Fixed.

[Edited 9/20/11 18:40pm]

I have a strong fetish for Keanu Reeves. So, everytime I see him in a movie, I have no clue what the movie is about, I just stare and phantasize about Keanu. I don't make that public, because when I did one time, I got teased with it a lot. Keany supposed to be not the most clever guy around.

I've seen the Matrix, I even saw part II in the I-max in Boston! However, I never 'got' the movie, I'm just staring at Keanu.......

I think I just have to read the book to get into the story. On a screen, it just doesn't work for me. Well Keanu does, however the story doesn't.

TheDigitalGardener said:

electricberet said:

Someone will post that Prince's religion is none of our business and as fans we should support him no matter what. Perhaps using the term "hater" to refer to those who disagree.

Another person will then jump on the first person for assuming that we should support him no matter what. Perhaps referring to purple kool-aid.

Back and forth like this for a while, with some lock dances thrown in, until someone starts a flame war and it gets locked.

You have summed up this place brilliantly.

you must be an oldie around here.

Oubah said:

He is aware of conspiracies, yet he believes in the mother of all conspiracies: Religion. He loves The Matrix but is taking the blue pill. WTF?

[Edited 9/20/11 10:56am]

What if he took the red pill and went all Syd Barrett on you? Not everyone can handle the red pill. Some people's minds are too fragile so they cling to whatever they can to maintain a feeling of safety and saneness...

extra strength tylenol? did wearing heels catch up to him?

Oubah said:

He is aware of conspiracies, yet he believes in the mother of all conspiracies: Religion. He loves The Matrix but is taking the blue pill. WTF?

[Edited 9/20/11 10:56am]

In light of what we know now, when you go back and listen to Prince's early work, the Jehovah's Witness influence is a lot more obvious. He was always taking the blue pill, even as he appeared to angrily resist it. With all his talk of armageddon and unbridled boning, at his center, he was just a rebellious kid with some musical gifts and a platform to induldge his anger and youthful misunderstandings publicly. Eventually he was going to fall back in line as all his chickens would come home to roost. Enter Larry Graham, funk legend, with his jailhouse muslim tactics, mixed in with Jehovah's Witness and Dale Carnegie shake-a-hand-make-a-friend belief system and we got modern era Prince. His albums, his live shows are all lame. Not exactly awful, but all the edge is gone. All the stuff that made Prince, the artist and the entertainer so compelling is gone. He feels he can't do anything interesting without damning himself to hell so we get nothing but blandness from him. I watched all the Rotterdam boots a comple of weeks ago and can only say bleh. I'll save those comments for a future thread though.

Something traumatic must have happened in his life other than the death of his baby. I feel sad for him.

funksterr said:

Oubah said:

He is aware of conspiracies, yet he believes in the mother of all conspiracies: Religion. He loves The Matrix but is taking the blue pill. WTF?

[Edited 9/20/11 10:56am]

In light of what we know now, when you go back and listen to Prince's early work, the Jehovah's Witness influence is a lot more obvious. He was always taking the blue pill, even as he appeared to angrily resist it. With all his talk of armageddon and unbridled boning, at his center, he was just a rebellious kid with some musical gifts and a platform to induldge his anger and youthful misunderstandings publicly. Eventually he was going to fall back in line as all his chickens would come home to roost. Enter Larry Graham, funk legend, with his jailhouse muslim tactics, mixed in with Jehovah's Witness and Dale Carnegie shake-a-hand-make-a-friend belief system and we got modern era Prince. His albums, his live shows are all lame. Not exactly awful, but all the edge is gone. All the stuff that made Prince, the artist and the entertainer so compelling is gone. He feels he can't do anything interesting without damning himself to hell so we get nothing but blandness from him. I watched all the Rotterdam boots a comple of weeks ago and can only say bleh. I'll save those comments for a future thread though.

electricberet said:

Genesia said:

That was a beautiful synopsis.

Thank you. While we're on the subject of movies, reading these threads reminds me of this:

Winner: none

But, didn't the red pill-blue pill concept originate in Alice in Wonderland?

Also, Prince has always been more traditionally religious than people wanted to notice or admit today. To be surprised that Prince was open to, considered, or became a Jehovah’s Witness means that one had no clue of Prince's work, references, or messages from For You through The Rainbow Children. I'm just amazed that so many people missed or did not see or maybe were just ignoring it, choosing to focus on the sexual sensationalism, not realizing that if you truly analyze most of Prince's songs he is using sex as a metaphor to discuss human neurosis or conflict. Rarely is the sex just for sexual gratification, and mostly it is a double or triple metaphor with some socio-political message or connotation.

So, maybe the people who did not see this whole Jehovah's Witness period of his life coming are the people who took the blue pill.

Oubah said:

Something traumatic must have happened in his life other than the death of his baby. I feel sad for him.

Yeah, don't know. He never talks about it, nor does his sister (that I know of). He does have a half-sister who was 32 when he was 16, so if "Sister" is in any way autobiographical, that's quite messed up. Tavis Smiley asked him why he's not a mean person considering his environment growing up, and he answered that he retreated into self and basically created his own world, and that his sister is the same way. One of my bros is a psychologist, and he says this is a typical reaction of kids who are resilient. The ones who are too "realistic," they are the ones who get lost, they get overwhelmed by the odds. The "unrealistic" optimistic ones, and also self-regulation and self-organization skills are important, are the ones who have something to cling to from getting sucked into a cycle of poverty, violence, abuse, etc. "The Sacrifice of Victor" is almost an ode to resiliency - and I hear it might be autobiographical too (the part about epilepsy, busing to school).

My point w/ all this is, whatever pill he's taking, let's be glad it's not the illegal narcotic kind, and whatever we think about his behavior or beliefs, it helped him get to being a productive, successful human being, so maybe it was necessary for him.

Personal Characteristics of Resilient Children

The results of many longitudinal studies (Garmezy et al., 1984; Rutter, 1983, 1985, 1986; Werner, 1984; Werner & Smith, 1982) have provided perspectives on the critical developmental personality factors that distinguish resilient children from those who become overwhelmed by risk factors:

(a) an active, evocative approach toward problem solving, enabling them to negotiate an array of emotionally hazardous experiences;

(b) an ability from infancy on to gain others' positive attention;

(c) an optimistic view of their experiences even in the midst of suffering;

(d) an ability to maintain a positive vision of a meaningful life; (this plus (c) is what my bro calls putting a positive spin on negative experiences - he's said before of such a kid, "man, he's deluded," but that kid's the one who's made something of himself despite the odds).

(e) an ability to be alert and autonomous;

(f) a tendency to seek novel experiences; and

(g) a proactive perspective.

Self-Concept Factors

Besides the buffering factors of temperament and family and environmental support, research has shown self-concept to play a role in resiliency. The capacities to understand self and self-boundaries in relation to long-term family stressors like psychological illness, to enhance positive self-esteem as a result of adaptive life competencies, and to steel oneself in the wake of stress all act as protective factors for at-risk youths.

Exerpt from

Promoting Resilience in At-Risk Children
Rak, C., & Patterson, L.
Journal of Counseling & Development: JCD, 744, 368-373. (1996).