Red-pilled concepts and lessons from Groundhog Day (useful for red-pilled parenting)

The other day my family watched the movie Groundhog Day, and I thought this film was a a good jumping off point to discuss some red-pill concepts with my kids. Although films and fictional books are generally not discussed here, I think the culture around us is a huge force that shapes us with blue pill beliefs. For example, the character, Maggie O'Connell on the TV series Northern Exposure ruined me for years. Based on the sexual tension between her and the male lead character, I thought that men liked abrasive, sassy women, and that sweet women were boring doormats. It took years to rectify this misconception, and I certainly don't want my children to fall into this trap.

Also, picture is worth a thousand words. Film moments can convey to concepts in ways that reading words on a screen can't. So, having said all this, I'd like to explore some of the red-pilled concepts and examples in the movie Groundhog Day.

The premise is that Phil (played by Bill Murray) a weather anchorman is stuck in a time loop where he re-lives the same day over and over in a small town that he's visiting with his co-workers.

The love interest, Rita (played by Andie MacDowell) is a good example of a strong feminine woman. These are some of the things I want my daughter to cultivate.

• She's kind, compassionate, sweet, and playful. She may admonish Phil's bad behavior, but she is not abrasive.
• She is a woman with a career, not a career woman. She wants to do a good job as a producer, but she is not overtly masculine in the way she goes about doing her job, or overly aggressive. She get's it done in a feminine way. I also got the impression that she would want to be a wife and mother.
• She has strong boundaries. Although she is sweet and kind, she does not hesitate to put her foot down when Phil pressures her into sex. And when he crosses a line, she slaps him.
• She also has a good vetting filter. She is repelled by him when he is a jerk and suspicious when he games her. When he finally changes into a HVM, then she is attracted to him.

Phil undergoes his own transformation from a jerk to a HVM. Starting out as a cynical, not-so-nice guy, he looks down on the small town folk. Initially he uses the time loop to engage in debauchery. Then he tries to game Rita over and over, using accumulated knowledge from her to help his game. After being rebuffed repeatedly, he becomes destructive and tries to commit suicide unsuccessfully.

In the last stage, Phil decides to undergo a process of improving himself and to help the people around him. He begins to exhibit the traits that I want my son to have:

• He works on himself. Phil decides to take piano lessons, learns how to sculpt ice, reads literature.
• He is internally motivated. He's improving himself not to get some girl, but for himself. That is something I often see in MRP, where guys are embarking on self improvement to gain approval of their wives, only to be told that they need to refocus the frame on themselves.
• He finds his own mission. He decides to use his knowledge of what's going to happen to help the townsfolk. He goes around town changing a tire for old ladies, catching a kid who falls out of a tree, and saving the life of a man who's choking.
• Rita is not his mission: When Phil delivers a heartfelt speech during his news segment, Rita beginning to feel intrigued by him and asks if he wants to have coffee. Instead of jumping on that opportunity, which his old self would have done, he responds that he would love to but he has some errands to run. These "errands" are his mission of helping out the townsfolk. He has a responsibility and an obligation to do good, and that takes precedence over chasing skirts. He maintained frame.

At the end of the film he becomes a HVM. Rita finds him playing jazz piano at a party. People are constantly coming up to him and thanking him for something he's done. There is a bachelor's auction where Phil is auctioned off and women are fighting over him, outbidding each other. The red-pilled would immediately recognize that this is a demonstration of social proof: women want men that other women want. Seeing that other women are bidding on Phil, Rita outbids them all and gets him for the night. She is now intrigued and attracted to Phil. At this point, I casually commented to my son that chasing women and trying to convince them to be with you is a weak strategy. Rather, it's a much better strategy to become an amazing man, and then women will more attracted to you.

All in all I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie. I hope you get a chance to watch this with a red-pilled lens and see if you can apply some of these concepts to your life. I certainly will.