For the past few years it has been in vogue to cite the movie “Idiocracy,” when commenting on what’s become of our society.
If you haven’t seen the movie, don’t feel bad. It was a total flop when it was released a decade ago. It’s one of those movies that, in retrospect, is terrifyingly brilliant. The premise is silly, but the message is surreal; Luke Wilson is part of an Army experiment in which he’s supposed to be put to sleep for a year and then awaken. The experiment goes wrong and he remains asleep for 500 years. When he “wakes up,” (as a result of the great garbage avalanche) he discovers everything that has happened to our culture and our society and how it’s all gone wrong. For starters, we no longer communicate with actual sentences. It’s more of a combination of slang and grunts. The president is a former professional wrestler, everything is sponsored by corporate America, water has been replaced by Gatorade to the point where we’re moistening our crops with it (and as a result they’re not growing and yet everyone is too stupid to piece the two together), violence and riots are considered normal and cool, anything related to intelligence is considered “uncool,” and the nation is so obsessed with sex (because we’re too stupid to do anything else) to the point that Starbucks is now a place men go to get hand-jobs.
If you can’t tell, I re-watched the movie this weekend. I laughed more than I ever have at that movie (which I’ve seen a dozen times) because all of it is so much more believable than it was just 5 or 10 years ago.
Think about it and compare it to where we are today:
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The president is a former reality TV star who literally can’t formulate a sentence. Former professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson is making legitimate strides towards running for office and Rockstar Kid Rock is running for senate.
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Marches that turn to riots in objection to the President are not only considered the norm, they’re cheered as being courageous
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We have no concept of facts. It’s all about who can scream louder, truth be damned.
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We have a professional boxer and MMA fighter touring the world throwing overt racist and homophobic insults at each other and most of the country says it’s all just fun.
I suggest a project for you; watch the movie, whether you’re seen it or not. I often cite the film myself, but I haven’t actually sat down and watched it for years.
Before you do, make a conscious decision as to in what vane you’re going to view the film. You can either do as I did and watch the movie as an hilarious commentary on where we’re headed (and we’re much closer than 500 years away) and laugh your ass off, or you can watch it as a frighteningly spot on satire of where we’re headed. Either way, as a friend of mine said when we were talking about the film this weekend “in a few years they’ll have to show it on the History Channel.”
