I’m sure this has been discussed before. I am only thinking about it because I plan to watch the new movie on HBOMax one if these days.
Everyone in The Matrix thought they were living a normal life with modern convenances and so on. Zion and the rest of the real world seemed like an absolute shithole. After the “war” and the human race was unplugged wouldn’t there be literally billions of people saying WTF? This sucks! Execute Morpheus and make Laurence Fishburne do sitcoms.
Ignorance is bliss, as they say. Everyone plugged into the Matrix was an unwilling (and unwitting) slave. Freedom, and the ability to understand the world as it actually is (even if it’s harsher), was what the red pill offered.
They tried a Utopia version before they put us all in “this one with the problems”, so to speak. People rejected the utopia version because it was too unreal.
I mean, we are in The Matrix right now according to the movie. So what is so bad? It does seem a lot better than being unplugged.
Cypher was right when he said, “I know what you’re thinking. 'Why oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?”
I’ve always said that I would have taken both pills.
(Not for some deep philosophical reasons or anything. I’m just a bit of a junkie).
But once the machines were defeated wasn’t everyone unplugged with no choice in the matter? Or did I miss/forget something?
What did the blue pill offer?
No, you didn’t miss anything, and you’re exactly right. Morpheus and Neo and co. were fighting to free everyone, and that did, indeed, mean removing everyone from the Matrix (whether they wanted to be removed or not) when they succeeded.
In the “Red Pill/Blue Pill” scene, in the first movie, Morpheus offers Neo a choice:
Thanks. Happy New Year, @kenobi_65!
ObligXKCD: (four separate comics on the page, read the 2nd line)
And the above text paragraph was the alt-text from the page, not my words, although I agree with them. 
YEs, exestentially, being in the Matrix is bad. You don’t have the freedom you imagine you do. Per the dialog, you area slave,m being used as a battery. You have no agency,
Except you demonstratively do, in the area that matters. Within the illusion, you have all the freedoms that we who are not in the Matrix (or are we,…?) have.
Plus, when the machines dump the bodies of the 5 billion people into the post apocalyptic hellish wasteland that the earth is, well, that’s not going to go well.
The Matrix is very Gene Roddenberry.
In his world, it’s always better to have control over your life, and live in misery, then to be a contented slave in Paradise (or a very nice glided cage).
In the deep future of the 25-26th century, people might hold Kirk in the level of contempt reserved for Hitler and Stalin and Col. Green, because he prevented the path to enlightenment for humanity, and condemned billions to unnecessary pain and suffering.
Maybe by staying in the Side of Paradise shown from the spores long enough to come to terms with the life, people could have regained their freedom from spore mind control but still kept the health and (potential?) immortality. It’s worth considering.
Of course, humanity could already be a Q-continuum species if more people had used the galactic barrier for its (intended?) ability of advancing species instead of selfishly keeping it a secret just because folk like Kirk would be left behind. “If I can’t be special, no one can.”
Spontaneously dying when your avatar gets turned into an Agent would probably suck.
It was stagnant inside the Matrix, for one. They maintained a constant 1999 level of technology, social development, etc., despite the program apparently going for centuries. That could get tiresome even if it was ostensibly comfortable. It’s unclear how they maintained that static level, too–did they intentionally suppress technology, delete social activists, etc.? It’s possible that they had to suppress almost all scientific research, since it doesn’t look like the Matrix is a full physical simulation–something like a particle accelerator would expose the truth.
Well, people spontaneously die anyway.
Since almost all humans would die horribly after the Matrix ended I’m not sure a few people being agentified is all that much worse.
There’s also the issue that once you wake up outside the Matrix, you have no way to know whether you’re just inside another simulation. At that point, you know for a fact that a convincing virtual world is possible, and there’s nothing that could completely convince you you’re in the real world.
What if the top stops spinning?
Nope, there was always people who wanted out, who felt something was “wrong” about being inside the matrix. This are the people Morpheus and company freed, and this were the only ones unplugged at the end of the trilogy. The deal was that anyone who wanted out was allowed out, that is it.
But what of, say, Cypher? I’ll grant, for the sake of argument, that he’d felt like something was wrong in the Matrix; but then, after plenty of time squatting in real cold subsisting on real stuff that tastes nothing like steak, is it possible he said huh, were things less bad in the Matrix?
They weren’t clear on the specifics but I assume going back in would also have been an option. And maybe without being a war and in constant danger of death there would be less Cyphers, and maybe better food.