my new chair to strip or not to strip that is the question!  

Red spray paint is my go-to cure-all.  I'm feeling purple for you though. 

thanks for the advice 
if i paint it im thinking orange but not set on it yet.

Strip it.  Bring it back to natural wood.

thank you 
i agree i just feel like its going to be quite a bit of work and i'm also quite a novice when it comes to stripping paint 
also have mixed feelings about the chair in general its kinda a love hate thing going on. i just bought it cause it was three dollars and i liked that it was a modern take on a windsor chair.
 

Stripping it might not be worth the effort if you're not sure you love it.  I used to buy stuff because I could get it for nothing, then I ended up with piles of stuff that I wasn't crazy about.  If you don't love it, take some good photos of it and slap it up on Craigslist.  Hopefully you'll make a little bit of money that you can put towards the next thing that you really do love.
PS--a decent paint job can be just as much work as stripping.  Keyword being "decent".  Bad paint jobs are easy to do.

anyone who has done this the right way will tell you that a good refinishing including repainting is 90% prep work and 10% actual refinishing/repainting (not just on furniture but on every other thing that needs it)
you can also look at it this way.  good prepwork could take 12-24 hours or more and actual refinishing/painting only takes a about 1 hour or less.
personally, i will only do extensive repair work on something that is worthwhile bringing back to what it was.  for generic pieces, it is probably going to cost you less to get an example that has the finish you want than to refinish/repaint.
i do not know much about the origin/background or provenance of your chair but windsor chairs traditionally are actually always painted unless the chair is from the likes of george nakashima or hans wegner and other well known furniture designers of the 20th century who reinterpreted traditional designs.

thank you both that is all very informative, good advice that im going to use. as ive been going back and fourth on keeping it or not i've decided if none of my friends dig it (if they do ill just give it to them) to craigslist it goes.

also, do not dismiss what you have right away until you have done enough research before you let the chair go.  this is an opportunity to learn, look at your chair closely for visible obvious signs like tool marks (machine tool marks look differnent than hand tool marks.  look at the joints/connections (tenons versus dowels).  look at the overall lines, shape and quality of how the chair was put together and most importanly ask yourself first "is this chair useful to me?".  if the answer is yes, that is all you need regardless of the chairs pedigree/provenance.

minimoma speak well. listen to minimoma.
Is the cross on the seat painted ?  Is there any chance the chair was designed with this paint job ?

paint it.  Orange is a great color.  5 years from now if you choose to strip it?  No great loss.