Stupid Is As Stupid Does
One day, not too long ago, we were browsing the movies to rent at our local Blockbuster. The choices that night were rather lackluster, so we ended up going home with a movie called Idiocracy.
Assuming you are like most people, you probably never heard of Idiocracy before. It's a movie that was written by the same guy who gave us Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill and the recent cult classic, Office Space. You know it's not a big time movie though since one of it's "stars" is Saturday Night Live's Maya "Bobby B!" Rudolph.
The movie's true star is Luke Wilson, one half of the seemingly unbeatable Wilson brothers movement. If it's not one brother handing off the slapstick baton to the other, it's a tag team effort where they both join in. In fact, this movie also features a bit part by a third Wilson brother, Andrew. I'll bet you never knew Andrew existed before this. That's ok. People spent years not knowing about Stephen or Daniel Baldwin and they turned out just fine, too.
** WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD**
But back to the movie. Idiocracy is the story of an Average Joe, named Joe Bauers. Joe is perfectly average in every way. Like Rockwell once sang, he's just an average man, with an average life. He works from nine to five and hell, he pays the price. Many people might relate to people like Joe if you dig deep enough. You know there might be more you could get out of life but the Joe's of the world have hit the "why bother?" breaking point. Instead they've settled for mediocrity.
Only one day, Joe is plucked from his mundane office job (think Judge is trying to tell us something?) and added as a subject to part of a grand, company related experiment. He is meant to hibernate along with Rita, Rudolph's character for a short period of time. Only during this time, the world falls apart and civilization forgets about them. When Joe and Rita eventually do come out of the experiment it is by accident. It is also 500 years into the future.
In the future, Joe and Rita quickly realize that the dumbing down of society has accelerated quite a bit. Suddenly, people who seemed perfectly average in present day society seem downright brilliant in future America. At first people of the future are afraid of the likes of Joe, but then they learn to embrace his "brilliance". Joe in turn, realizes his true calling is to be the king of the tweedledum and the Tweedledumber's.
**OK, IT'S SAFE TO READ NOW**
When you watch a movie like Idiocracy at first you may be taken aback by it's sheer ridiculousness. Society could never become that dumb, right? But if you take a look around, you might come to the same conclusion as I did. The far off future might not be as far-fetched as it initially seems.
Think about shows like Jerry Springer for instance. That show started at least ten years ago. It made me sick to my stomach when it would come on. I can still see people crowded around the TV in the dorm rooms of my mind. Those were the heyday of the dysfunctional talk show. But Springer was just the tip of the iceberg. Little did we know that segmented dysfunction would evolve into thirty and sixty minute episodic disarray for all the world to see.
Ultimately the likes of Ricki Lake spawned reality TV as we know it. Nowadays we have everyone from Paris Hilton, to Sanjaya to I Love New York. The old Real World used to be able to proudly boast, "This is the true story of when people stop being polite, and start getting real." Whether it's real or not really doesn't matter. The fact that it's still passable as entertainment illustrates the dumbing down of our society in little pieces, Kibbles N' Bits, if you will.
I hate to say it, but sometimes teaching also reminds me of this. I'm not saying I'm always the sharpest tool in the shed, but I have to confess something. I often feel smarter when I see some of what's out there in society and believe me, I see it first hand every day. I'm not saying my students are dumb so please don't paraphrase and jump to that conclusion. All I'm saying is that there is a basic lack of common sense that seems to be permeating mass culture these days. Then there are others that just don't do things out of sheer laziness. From where I'm standing I can't decide which is worse.
I am in the business of turning that around though which I do try my damnedest to do. But sometimes when I see what the present holds and it makes me scared to imagine the future. If you speak to people from older generations they will confirm the same frustrations. We live in a society that caters to laziness with online shopping and drive-thru fast food. In our lifetime this might not have a major impact, but being more efficient doesn't necessarily equate to being more self-sufficient.
On the surface, movies like Idiocracy come across as ridiculous send ups of a world that could never been. But if you take one look at how much has changed in even ten years you may come to the same conclusion as I have.
Stupid is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Assuming you are like most people, you probably never heard of Idiocracy before. It's a movie that was written by the same guy who gave us Beavis and Butt-head, King of the Hill and the recent cult classic, Office Space. You know it's not a big time movie though since one of it's "stars" is Saturday Night Live's Maya "Bobby B!" Rudolph.
The movie's true star is Luke Wilson, one half of the seemingly unbeatable Wilson brothers movement. If it's not one brother handing off the slapstick baton to the other, it's a tag team effort where they both join in. In fact, this movie also features a bit part by a third Wilson brother, Andrew. I'll bet you never knew Andrew existed before this. That's ok. People spent years not knowing about Stephen or Daniel Baldwin and they turned out just fine, too.
** WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD**
But back to the movie. Idiocracy is the story of an Average Joe, named Joe Bauers. Joe is perfectly average in every way. Like Rockwell once sang, he's just an average man, with an average life. He works from nine to five and hell, he pays the price. Many people might relate to people like Joe if you dig deep enough. You know there might be more you could get out of life but the Joe's of the world have hit the "why bother?" breaking point. Instead they've settled for mediocrity.
Only one day, Joe is plucked from his mundane office job (think Judge is trying to tell us something?) and added as a subject to part of a grand, company related experiment. He is meant to hibernate along with Rita, Rudolph's character for a short period of time. Only during this time, the world falls apart and civilization forgets about them. When Joe and Rita eventually do come out of the experiment it is by accident. It is also 500 years into the future.
In the future, Joe and Rita quickly realize that the dumbing down of society has accelerated quite a bit. Suddenly, people who seemed perfectly average in present day society seem downright brilliant in future America. At first people of the future are afraid of the likes of Joe, but then they learn to embrace his "brilliance". Joe in turn, realizes his true calling is to be the king of the tweedledum and the Tweedledumber's.
**OK, IT'S SAFE TO READ NOW**
When you watch a movie like Idiocracy at first you may be taken aback by it's sheer ridiculousness. Society could never become that dumb, right? But if you take a look around, you might come to the same conclusion as I did. The far off future might not be as far-fetched as it initially seems.
Think about shows like Jerry Springer for instance. That show started at least ten years ago. It made me sick to my stomach when it would come on. I can still see people crowded around the TV in the dorm rooms of my mind. Those were the heyday of the dysfunctional talk show. But Springer was just the tip of the iceberg. Little did we know that segmented dysfunction would evolve into thirty and sixty minute episodic disarray for all the world to see.
Ultimately the likes of Ricki Lake spawned reality TV as we know it. Nowadays we have everyone from Paris Hilton, to Sanjaya to I Love New York. The old Real World used to be able to proudly boast, "This is the true story of when people stop being polite, and start getting real." Whether it's real or not really doesn't matter. The fact that it's still passable as entertainment illustrates the dumbing down of our society in little pieces, Kibbles N' Bits, if you will.
I hate to say it, but sometimes teaching also reminds me of this. I'm not saying I'm always the sharpest tool in the shed, but I have to confess something. I often feel smarter when I see some of what's out there in society and believe me, I see it first hand every day. I'm not saying my students are dumb so please don't paraphrase and jump to that conclusion. All I'm saying is that there is a basic lack of common sense that seems to be permeating mass culture these days. Then there are others that just don't do things out of sheer laziness. From where I'm standing I can't decide which is worse.
I am in the business of turning that around though which I do try my damnedest to do. But sometimes when I see what the present holds and it makes me scared to imagine the future. If you speak to people from older generations they will confirm the same frustrations. We live in a society that caters to laziness with online shopping and drive-thru fast food. In our lifetime this might not have a major impact, but being more efficient doesn't necessarily equate to being more self-sufficient.
On the surface, movies like Idiocracy come across as ridiculous send ups of a world that could never been. But if you take one look at how much has changed in even ten years you may come to the same conclusion as I have.
Stupid is just another word for nothing left to lose.
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