Grassroots forum encourages students to take “red pill”

“You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more...”

Tech students will easily recognize the words of Morpheus in The Matrix. However, a few students at Tech hope to encourage students to consider those words in another context outside of the movie-as the introduction to another session of a Red Pill Forum.

A grassroots organization that has spread mostly through word of mouth, the idea to hold Red Pill Forum took seed on Georgia Tech’s campus last spring, through the efforts of staff members from Victory Campus Ministries (VCM), a recently-formed Christian student organization.

However, its sponsors emphasize that the forums are not meant to be religiously affiliated.

Although VCM promotes the Red Pill Forum, Joshua Harrelson, Campus Director of VCM, said, “Victory Campus Ministries is what sponsors Red Pill Forum. Red Pill Forum itself is not a campus ministry; it is a discussion group open for anybody and everybody who wants to come voice their own opinion without a set agenda.”

Indeed, its student advocates say that the forums are meant to simply promote dialogue.

“I noticed on Tech’s campus that philosophy and critical thinking are kind of a lost art,” said David Harris, a Nuclear Engineering major who moderates Red Pill dicussions.

The Red Pill Forum began as an idea that came from the University of California at Berkeley with the purpose of “bringing polite discussion back to campus.”

Originally called “Brief and Amazing Discussions,” the Red Pill Forum has grown into an international organization with 32 sites in the US. Their recently-published first DVD, Red Pill Volume I, is jam-packed with 12 “pills” ranging from five to seven minutes in length.

Each “pill” is a video clips that combines excerpts from popular culture, news reports and street interviews that display the many different perceptions and issues facing various controversial subjects that are relevant to young people today.

“The topics are basically current issues that affect us,” Harris said.

With video clips on topics ranging from evolution to the effect of violent music on society, the beginning of each Red Pill Forum is similar, but what, where and how they end is totally in the hands of the participants.

A mediator is provided to ensure an environment where people aren’t afraid to share their thoughts, but not to dominate or control the discussion. Currently, Harris and another student act as moderators, though more are constantly being added.

“The current moderators have been to [VCM’s] meetings, because we want relationship formed with the people that are training...[we] want to make sure they’re good moderators,” Harris said.

The forums, which are held in more intimate, informal areas such as dorm rooms or lounges and hosted by student volunteers, last for 20 minutes each and garner about 10 participants each week.

This setup is designed so that the forums “are structured around people’s schedules,” Harris said.

"[They are] held in the dorm rooms,” he explained, because they provide “a very convenient outlets for people to discuss that stuff that you usually don’t have a chance to.”

Discussions have been going on for about a month. “The one I moderated three weeks ago in Woodruff,” Harris said, “we had about seven people show up.”

At the beginning of each session, a video clip, reading or speech is presented, and then the topic is opened up for debate amongst all participants.

Discussions are usually very structured so as to not run over the 20-minute limit, though Harris said, “Obviously, if there’s really good discussion going on then we’ll let it hang for about one or two minutes.”

While the topics provided are great conversation starters, any topic can be brought up to be discussed. At the end of each meeting, a vote takes place to decide the subject matter of the next gathering.

The current goal, said Harris, is to host several meetings a week “so that anyone can...go to them.”

The success of the forums is uncertain for now. Harris and others involved with the project plan to involve students and faculty, as well as advertise on Skiles.

He said, “Our immediate scope is to get people interested, have a few regular ones taking place on campus, see how many hosts we can find on campus, see what the response is and gauge it based on that.”

Harris emphasized that “It’s kind of a long-term goal...We don’t expect this to happen this year.” However, he added that “within a few years, I would like one in every dorm, and in academic buildings [as well].”

However, one of the problems that may face Harris and the other students who wish to make the Red Pill Forums a campus-wide activity is Tech students’ apathy and lack of time.

For example, Trevor Christensen, a freshman Aerospace Engineering major, said he would probably would not attend a forum “because I wouldn’t find that very productive. At Tech I don’t have time, so I either have to do something productive or sleep. I relax on the weekends, but I wouldn’t find it very relaxing either.”

“I think there are discussions here and there that come up,” said Michael Dam, a Mechanical Engineering freshman, “but the problem is that people are not informed enough to find them such that they can become a part of them.” When asked whether or not he would attend a forum, Dam responded, “I would go given an interesting topic.”

However, with topics such as evolution and the influence of music on society, discussions are often intense.

Still, they are always open. The Red Pill Forum is, for VCM staff member Pattie Peck, a place “where people can give their opinions and not be shot down or walk away feeling like they weren’t able to share their opinion."