CITY OF NANAIMO (Living in the Matrix?)

 

WHAT IF WE TOOK THE RED PILL?  

NANAIMO REDPILL – What If the City Is the Illusion?

“What is real? How do you define real?” – Morpheus

You wake up. You pay your taxes. You walk your dog, mow your lawn, and trust that the people in City Hall are doing what they’re supposed to: serving you, the taxpayer.

But what if that’s not reality?

What if the city you believe exists for you... actually exists because of you—to use you?

What if every bylaw, every fee, every permit, every public hearing with a predetermined outcome… isn’t civic order, but control?

Take the Red Pill

What happens when you stop believing in the illusion? When you realize that “public consultation” is a script, that "engagement" is theatre, and that the real decisions are made long before the agenda is posted?

You begin to see it.

The city doesn’t serve you. You serve it.

The City as Machine

City Hall has become a self-perpetuating organism—feeding off your taxes to grow itself.
Departments multiply. Salaries rise. Consultants circle like drones, writing the future your vote never touched.

City Council swallows donuts and ignores Core Service Reviews.

Meanwhile, core services decay:

• Sidewalks crumble
• Parks go unkempt
• Water mains burst
• Sewer pipes leak into the ocean
• Crime runs amok in the city core 
• City buildings need rebuilding
• Potholes still wreck car suspensions

But there’s always money for "visioning exercises," art banners, and new layers of staff. Always money for one more study and report.

The illusion is maintained: “We’re building a better city.”
In reality, they’re building a bigger city.
And you're footing the bill for their version of progress—one more tower, one more zone change, one more plan that serves them.

Wake Up, Nanaimo

Ask yourself:
- Who benefits from the deals made in your name?
- Who actually reads the 300-page financial plan?
- Who decided that your property tax increase was acceptable?

You didn’t. But you’re paying for it.

Like Neo, you’ve been living in a dream world.
A carefully constructed system to keep you compliant, distracted, and productive.

Until now.

The Choice Is Yours

Blue pill? Go back to brunch. Trust the headlines. Believe that the city knows best.

Red pill? Start questioning. Reading. Asking why every budget grows but services shrink. Asking who, exactly, City Hall is really working for.

Because once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it.
The City isn’t just where you live.
It’s what’s living off you.

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“Nanaimo Redpill – What If the City Is the Illusion?” is an original editorial allegory produced by Voice of Nanaimo.
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