Summary:

Not many on TRP seem very knowledgeable of the historical shift that allowed the Blue Pill narrative to become a mainstream phenomenon, taking over the media and entertainment industry. However, this shift in public perception has been well documented by historians. In this post I will analyze a scholarly article written by Gary Cross, published in the Journal of Social History, titled Crowds and Leisure: Thinking Comparatively Across the 20^th Century.

Body:

To start, one of the most useful terms that Gary Cross uses to describe modern amusement parks is the term “industrial saturnalia,” a reference to worship of the old Roman god Saturn. He defines this term as a modern return to saturnalian customs: “food and drink in excess, social inversion, mockery, and a fascination with the supernatural and abnormal that provided psychological release for people who daily endured the rigors of scarcity, tedium, and the humiliation of authority.”

The important phrase to note in this definition is social inversion. The Blue Pill indoctrination system had its beta release in theme parks such as Disneyland. Disney pioneered many ways of playing on people’s emotions in order to draw in a larger crowd. These tactics will later be utilized by governments in what we now know as Blue Pill.

According to Cross, large leisurely crowds during the 1950s were seen as dirty, loud, and above all lower class. Disney’s main goal was to create a “cleaning up” of the playful crowd, in order to once more popularize large, crowded theme parks. In order to do this, Disney’s main priority was obviously to physically clean up his park, and to remove much of the seemingly “dirty” and “dangerous” attractions presented in other amusement parks, such as freaks, barkers and thrill rides.

However the second strategy employed by Disney is the key here. Disneyland allowed the “emotional release” of fantasy and abandon, while also tempering it with “childish romance and science fiction fantasy.” Sound familiar?

Cross goes on to explain that Disney “not only cleaned up the pleasure site, but reconstituted the playful crowd by inviting its individual members to focus on… the wondrous innocence of their children.” Disneyland represented a place where adults could throw off their social responsibilities, and revel in their own “inner child,” a phrase that was practically coined by Disney and his cartoons. Through these marketing techniques, “Americans learned especially well how to associate emotions and satisfactions with the stories and characters of the mass media and especially of Disney.”

As /u/Neoreactionsafe tends to point out, Disney represents a major turning point in modern culture. Many historians are inclined to agree with him. Disneyland creates a fantastical place where adults can throw off their responsibility and become children again, reveling in the carefree innocence of their youth. The link to Blue Pill indoctrination techniques should not be too hard to make, since many TRP posts explicitly detail how even adult women will commonly act like children. This shrugging off of responsibility leads to the modern beta male as well, because the beta was promised a fantastic, wonderful life through the media, and when this life does not magically appear, the beta simply lashes out like a child, instead of taking responsibility for his happiness like an adult should.

Lessons Learned:

The Blue Pill is not a new phenomenon, and was pioneered by the marketing techniques used for Disneyland.

Disney was one of the pioneers of associated emotions and satisfaction with his own entertainment programs.

The Blue Pill doctrine works through a return to old saturnalian customs, primarily social inversion, or turning an adult back into a child.

Tip Burritohunter for their post.