American Idiocracy

So, I couldn’t bear to listen to Mai Fasai on the local morning news because her voice does to my ears what police sirens do to a dog’s, so I channel-surfed. I landed on IFC, part way through a movie I’ve never heard of called “Idiocracy.”

It’s about an average guy (of COURSE his name is Joe) who is propelled 500 years into the future in the U.S., and is declared to be the smartest man in the world because the country is populated by morons. At some time in the distant past, education and intelligence were declared uncool, so everyone in the future is a monster-truck lovin’, Costco shoppin’, gun-totin’, sex craved idiot.

Wow. All of America becomes the south? The future is indeed a scary place.

Although the movie is clearly a low-budget piece of crap, bear in mind that it was made in 2006 – the pinnacle of George W. Bush’s second term, at a time when hostility toward anyone with higher education or a brain capable in thinking in anything other than black and white absolutes is denigrated and ridiculed. And Bush is the unparalleled poster boy for this sentiment. And enter into the scene Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Todd Akin, the entirety of Fox “News”, and this crappy little movie starts to seem like a clever allegory. It’s an exaggeration of middle America… right NOW.

In particular is a scene where Joe is trying to solve the dust bowl problem and lack of crops, and discovers that a corporation has purchased parts of the government and deemed that all crops will be watered with “Brawndo” (Gatorade) instead of water, and of course the crops die.

So… the purchasing of the government by a corporation, aided by the slobbering idiocy of mainstream America ultimately destroys the food source, the economy and society itself.

Hello… Monsanto anyone?

And… everyone in the future has a Corporate first name… Frito, Pepsi, etc., and everything has a corporate sponsor.

Really lame movie or insightful parody? It’s written by Mike Judge, creator of “Beavis and Butthead” and “Office Space.” Hmmmm…

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